Sonali Kulkarni | Sonali Kulkarni's Biography and Information

Sonali Kulkarni

Biography and Information

Information On Sonali Kulkarni
Name:	Sonali Kulkarni
Debut Film:	Mukta

Sonali Kulkarni's Profile

Sonali Kulkarni, a theater artist, classical dancer and an immensely talented actress, is finally getting her due as she makes her presence felt in Bollywood. This beautiful actress has always steered clear of the Bollywood limelight while at the same time winning accolades for her acting skills in parallel cinema.

A Satyadev Dubey protégé, Sonali has been hooked on to the creative process ever since she began theatre workshops under her mentor some five years ago. Her skills honed, she soon forayed into the world of sensible cinema with Girish Karnad's Cheluvi. Sonali followed it with intense performances in Jabber Patel's Mukta, Amol Palekar's Daayra, and later on Kairee, and the acclaimed Doghi for which she even won a National Award.

All this while Sonali has been elusive to limelight. Most of her films were screened at festivals and never got much of an exposure with the masses. Now Bollywood seems to have discovered Sonali. Her riveting performance opposite Sanjay Dutt in Vinod Chopra's Mission Kashmir has not gone unnoticed despite the little footage she had in the film. And presently Sonali has all the reasons to be euphoric as her hands are full of plum projects that pitch her opposite some of the leading men in Bollywood.

Just around the corner is Ram Gopal Varma production Pyar Tune Kya Kiya in which she plays wife to Fardeen Khan. Then there is Junoon with Chandrachud and Farhan Akhtar's directorial debut Dil Chahta Hai opposite Saif Ali Khan. From theatre to regional films and now to Bollywood biggies Sonali sure has come a long way.

Filmography:

• 1994 Mukta
• 1995 Doghi
• 1999 Jahan Tum Le Chalo
• 2000 Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar
• 2001 Dil Chahta Hai
• 2001 Pyar Tune Kya Kiya
• 2002 Agni Varsha
• 2002 Dil Vil Pyar Vyar

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Sushmita Sen | Sushmita Sen's Biography and Information

Sushmita Sen

Biography and Information

Information On Sushmita Sen
Name:	Sushmita Sen
Address:	6th Floor, Beach Queen, Yari Road, Versova, Andheri (West), Mumbai 400 061
Date of Birth:	19th November, 1975
Zodiac:	Scorpio
Height:	5"11"
Debut Film:	Dastak

Sushmita Sen's Profile

An ambassador of feminine beauty, peace, love, and optimism. The first Indian to win the Miss Universe pageant held at Manila, Philippines 1994 was born in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. After she finished her plus two she participated in the Femina Miss India contest and from then on there was no looking back. This 172.5cm tall, girl next-door face shot into fame when she became The Femina Miss India in 1994.

Her main assets an intelligent mind, poise and linguistic competence finally won her the coveted Miss Universe Crown. Eighteen year old Sushmita Sen the youngest among the 76 contestants charmed a million viewers as well as the judges with her amazing mental acumen.

Sushmita made her debut in Dastak in the role of a vulnerable girl being stalked by a psycho (Sharad Kapoor). The film was a dud at the box office. Soon another flop Zor followed. Things were not going right for Sush. Sushmita did a comic role in David Dhawan’s Biwi No.1 and caught movie buff’s attention. She had a flair for the comedy. She also did a romantic role opposite Abhishek Bachchan in Bus Itna Sa Khwab Hai. Unfortunately this movie too bombed at the box office. Recently she was seen in a very realistic role in Meghna Gulzar’s directorial debut Filhaal. She has got very rave reviews for convincing portrayal of her character in the film.

Sushmita is intelligent, but it's an intelligence as yet untainted by realism. Before all this happened, here was yet a gossamer world, tipped between the cradle and the crown. Creative rather than literal, poetic rather than pedantic, it is these very qualities that endeared her to the viewers and judges.

She has led a rather normal filmi existence and has had her fair share of carping critics, her erratic lifestyle, her unpunctual ways, her live in relationships, her much married boyfriend Vikram Bhatt, her phenomenal asking price, her undeflated ego, her problem and consequent patch up with Akshay Kumar, all have brought her morethan her share of flak.

Titles Won:

• Femina Miss India 1994
• Miss Universe 1994

Filmography:

• 1996 DASTAK (new)
• 1998 ZOR
• 1999 HINDUSTAN KI KASAM (new)
• 1999 BIWI NO. 1
• 2000 AAGHAAZ
• 2001 MOKSHA
• 2001 KYO KII.. MAIN JHUTH NAHIN BOLTA
• 2001 BAS ITNA SA KHWAAB HAI
• 2002 TUMKO NA BHOOL PAAYENGE
• 2002 AANKHEN (new)
• 2002 FILHAAL
• 2003 SAMAY
• 2003 PAISA VASOOL
• 2004 BEWAFA

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Tina Munim | Tina Munim's Biography and Information

Tina Munim

Biography and Information

Information On Tina Munim
Name:	Tina Munim
Date of Birth:	11th February
Zodiac:	Aquarius
Family:	Husband-Anil Ambhani
Debut Film:	Des Pardes

Tina Munim's Profile

Certainly one of the most classically beautiful actresses to ever grace Hindi Popular cinema, Tina Munim exemplified the look of 1980s hip middle class youth. In fact, she was a magazine cover girl and international beauty pageant queen (or more technically princess) by the time she was 15 years old. Munim was one of the first Indian beauty queens to follow their pageant career with acting in Bollywood.

Dev Anand was looking for a new actress to star in his next film. Legend has it he saw the cover of Femina magazine with Tina Munim on it celebrating her return from the International Teen Princess contest at Aruba. Anand contacted Munim and asked her if she wanted to act in films. At first reluctant because she was intending to follow a fashion design career in Paris, Tina relented to give acting a try.

Dev Anand, the savvy showman he was, capitalized on Tina Munim's popularity with "Des Pardes" [1978]. She was still only 16 years old. The movie, much due to the novelty of Tina Munim, went on to be Anand's last big hit as a film maker.

In 1980 Sunil Dutt launched his son Sanjay in his film debut "Rocky". Tina Munim was chosen as Sanjay's heroine. The screen love story blossomed into a real life affair and Tina and Sanjay became romantically linked to each other. Their relationship was short lived, and the breakup is said to have devastated Sanjay.

In the mid 1980s Munim made the conscious decision to put her Bollywood career on hiatus. She moved to California where she studied and got a college degree. In 1991 she returned to India and later married industrialist Anil Ambani. Today she is involved in a number of charity, arts, and talent endeavors.

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Vijayantimala Mala | Vijayantimala Mala's Biography and Information

Vijayantimala Mala

Biography and Information

Information On Vaijayantimala Bali
Name:	Vaijayantimala Bali
Debut Film:	Bahar-1951

Vaijayantimala Bali's Profile

Vyjayantimala was the first South Indian actress who made it as a national star and was one of the biggest ever Hindi Film female stars in a career lasting almost two decades. Besides her ability as an actress, which was considerable, her greatest legacy to Indian Cinema perhaps is that it has become a must for any aspiring actress in Indian Cinema to be an accomplished dancer. Vyjayantimala has always had the mandatory dance sequence in practically every film of hers evoking 'classical art' associations.

She started in Tamil films under M.V. Raman's direction at AVM with Vazkai/ Jeevitham (1949) a bilingual and later adapted as Bahar (1951), which was AVM and Vyjayantimala's initial foray into Hindi Films.

She became a major star with Filmistan's Nagin (1954). Crowd's thronged to see her snaky gyrations to that evergreen Lata Mangeshkar hit - Man Dole, Mera Man Dole.

With Devdas (1955), Vyjayantimala, playing the dancing girl Chandramukhi, proved herself to be an actress of considerable merit. There was a till now unexplored depth in her characterization. Her silent expression in the scene where Devdas offers her money for her services was award worthy and indeed she did win the Filmfare Award for Devdas as Supporting Actress. She however refused the award on the grounds of her role being equally important as the other heroine, Suchitra Sen who played Paro and that both were leading roles.

She replaced Madhubala in Naya Daur (1957) and shot to the highest echelons of stardom with Bimal Roy's Madhumati (1958) and her role of a prostitute in Sadhana (1958) fetched her the Filmfare Award for Best Actress.

Ganga Jamuna (1961) saw another flawless performance from her. It is to her credit that in spite of her South-Indian upbringing, her bhojpuri dialect in the film is near perfect and fetched her another Filmfare Award for Best Actress. She got her third Best Actress Award for Raj Kapoor's Sangam (1964), one of the best triangles in Indian Cinema. But while doing Sangam she got involved in an ill-fated romance with Raj Kapoor.

When they broke off, Vyjayantimala was a changed person having turned bitter and even arrogant. The flopping of the dancing magnum opus Amrapali (1966) with her in the title role didn't help. Having fought with Dilip Kumar, she left Ram aur Shyam (1967) and was replaced by Waheeda Rehman. (though she completed Sangharsh (1968) with Dilip Kumar, the two hardly spoke to one another throughout the making of the film!)

Also after Sangam, barring Amrapali, her later films were pretty lightweight and made no challenges on her as an actress. She has her moments in Jewel Thief (1967) though. Her dancing in the cult song Hoton Pe Aisi Baat was brilliant; it was a song with long and complex shot takings with both character movement and character movement but Vyjayantimala effortlessly sailed through the song. But it was clear she was losing interest in films. Her costar of Pyar hi Pyar (1969), Dharmendra, remembers he completed the whole film with her without even being introduced to her!

She got married to Raj Kapoor's personal physician Dr. Bali and left the Film Industry. She has since had a son Suchindra, dabbled in various businesses like shrimp farming and even stood for elections and was a Member of Parliament in the 1980s, besides concentrating on her first love - dancing. Her son has now entered the Tamil Film Industry to try and make it as an actor.

Awards Won:

• 1951 Bahar
• 1954 Nagin
• 1955 Devdas
• 1956 New Delhi
• 1957 Naya Daur
• 1958 Madhumati
• 1958 Sadhana
• 1961 Ganga Jamuna
• 1964 Sangam
• 1967 Jewel Thief

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Tabbu | Tabbu's Biography and Information

Tabbu

Biography and Information

Information On Tabu
Name:	Aka Tabassum
Address:	Anukul, 2nd Floor, 7 Bungalows, Andheri (W), Mumbai 400058
Date of Birth:	4th November, 1971
Zodiac:	Scorpio
Height:	5' 6"
Family:	Father - Jamal Hashmi, Mother - Rizwana, Sister - Farha (Actress)
Debut Film:	HUM NAUJAWAN

Tabu's Profile

Tabu started her film career as a child artiste for Dev Anand’s Hum Naujawan. The film didn’t do phenomenally at the box -office, and since she wasn’t the lead actress, Tabu gained little mileage from it. The first film she signed on as lead actress was 'Prem', but finally, 'Pehla Pehla Pyar' released first and launched her as leading lady. Obviously, defining her celluloid debut still remains a difficult issue. But from the moment she appeared on, she struck home as a genuine stunner who didn’t need a nose-job to look good. Though about the first few films she signed on the less said, the better, she exhibited a marked acting talent. It took her about two years to go past the run-of-the mill roles and enter more serious spheres of acting, but in her formative years as an actress, she learn the Hindi film basics inside out.

Comic roles with the likes of Govinda and Rishi Kapoor were complemented by more sober performances opposite Ajay Devgun and Sunny Deol. The period when she fully acquainted herself with commercial cinema was pivotal, because it was this point on that she acquired the liberty to choose her own scripts. Once established as a good actress (and a reliable draw at the box-office), Tabu started experimenting. Tabu entered alternative (for lack of better word) cinema in steps. She began with Kala-Pani, a South-produced film about the freedom movement and followed it up with another good performance in Kadalan Desam, another Tamil blockbuster. In Jeet she was cast opposite Sunny Deol. The film was by no means describable as serious cinema, probably as strictly a commercial film as a Manmohan Desai potboiler.

However, Tabu's performance won the admiration of many, as she overshadowed the lead actress, Karishma Kapoor even though what she had in the film wasn't much more than a character role. But the high-point of her cinema career was her performance in Maachis. As a young Sikh girl forced to take a stand in the backdrop of the Punjab terrorism period, Tabu matched up in performance to the skill of her director Gulzar. Maachis is one of the few concerted efforts by an actress in the commercial Hindi film industry to branch into serious cinema.

While ‘Maachis’ established her as an excellent actress, Virasat reconfirmed that fact. Again, in a small role, Tabu effectively eclipsed all the other cast members. Similarly, in Border, Tabu won recognition for her small, but perfectly underplayed role as wife of an army officer. Darmiyaan, directed by Kalpana Lajmi is an art film - not the kind that would associate itself with the average Bollywood starlet, nor the kind of film that commercial film actresses would normally exhaust their resources on. Tabu did a character role in the film, and stood up to the likes of Kiron Kher and Arif Zakaria - no mean task. Today, she is very choosy about her films and insists on doing few, but select films every year. She has already carved a niche for herself in the Indian film industry as an actress to be taken very seriously. And if the kind of work she has come up with is any indication of things to come, we have a lot more of Tabu to look forward to.

Awards Won: 

• National Award for Maachis (1997)  
• Critis Award for Virasat (Filmfare - 1998)
• 49th National Award for Chandni Bar.

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