Shabana Azmi

Shabana Azmi was born on 18 September 1950 in New Delhi, India. She is one of the most leading and sought out actresses of parallel cinema. Shabana Azmi is a social activist too, and has honoured with the National Film Award for Best Actress. In 1973 she completed her graduation from FTII and went on to sign on Khwaja Ahmad Abbas' Faasla and began work on Kanti Lal Rathod's Parinay as well.

Her first release was Shyam Benegal's directorial debut Ankur that was released in 1974. The actress went on to receive the National Film Award for three years from 1983 to 1985 for her roles in films- Arth, Khandhar and Paar respectively.

Even the 1999 film Godmother earned her another National Film Award. She also acted in experimental and parallel Indian cinema. Deepa Mehta’s 1996 film Fire showcased her as a lonely woman, Radha, in love with her sister-in-law.

Shabana Azmi debuted on the small screen in a soap opera titled Anupama in which she portrayed a modern Indian woman. Recently, Shabana Azmi was seen in Gurinder Chadha's It's A Wonderful Afterlife.

Biography Bollywood actress Tabu

Tabu born on November 4, 1970 is an Indian film actress. She has mainly acted in Hindi films, though she has also starred in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Bengali language films, as well as one American film. She has won the National Film Award for Best Actress twice, and she holds the record for the most wins of Filmfare's Critics Award for Best Female Performer, with four.




She went to St. Anns high school in Hyderabad. Tabu moved to Mumbai in 1983 and studied at St. Xavier's College for two years. She is the niece of Shabana Azmi and the younger sister of actress Farah Naaz. She has homes in Mumbai and Hyderabad

In Gulzar’s Machis, she depicted the agony of citizens of Punjab, who were the victims of terrorist attacks during the period when there was unrest in the state. Chandrachur Singh and Om Puri also provided realistic performance in the state.

She was sublime in the film Tarqieb, where she was killed and there was no evidence to prove the guilt of the offender. She was the friend of Shilpa Shetty and she was also interrogated about her experience with her friend. Nana Patekar did the enquiry and used a number of witnesses to establish the murder and unveil the truth.

In a film Cheeni Kum opposite Big B, which had a peculiar story line of a 60-plus aged person having an affair with a middle aged woman. It happens in certain cases, and Tabu had provided adequate feelings in her role.

She was brilliant in Chachi 420, opposite Kamal Hassan, where her father Amrish Puri, disliked her husband and Kamal Hassan had to play the role of a chachi, who was a cook in her house and in that way both of them lived together. She also had a daughter whom both her husband and herself loved a lot. The film had very powerful performance from the character actors like Om Puri and Paresh Rawal.

She had done well in the comedy film Biwi No.1, opposite Anil Kapoor, where his friend, Salman Khan had entered into extra-marital affair, and both Tabu and Anil Kapoor, had helped Karishma Kapoor, the wife of Salman Khan in the film to get back her husband and leave Susmita Sen, who created all the problems.

Tabu had shown her comedy skills in an adequate manner. She also did well in the film Hera Pheri opposite Sunil Shetty and Akshay Kumar,where she used all the unfair means possible to get a job.

Tabu had used both her glamour and acting capability in the films that she acted in which includes Border, Astitva, Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar, Virasat (1997), Hu Tu Tu (1999), Astitva (2000), Chandni Bar (2001) and Maqbool (2003) etc.

Urmila Matondkar Biography

Urmila Matondkar born on February 4, 1974 in Mumbai is an Indian Bollywood actress and is a typical Marathi girl.

Urmila Matondkar had acted in experimental roles for the last 15 years. But the viewers remember her more in scary characters created by Ram Gopal Verma. She acted as a child artist in Masoom, in 1983. She showed her innocence in the character as she was the daughter of Shabana Azmi who liked to play with her step-brother played by Jugal Hansraj. She gave good lips in the song “lakri ke kathi” composed by R.D.Burman.




She stormed bollywood films with her performance in Ram Gopal Verma’s Daud, opposite Sanjay Dutt. It was serio-comic film which was based on a stolen property. Both Sanjay and Urmila travelled in different places and were chased by thiefs for the stolen property. The story was straight forward, but the performance of Urmila was well appreciated by the audience. She proved her identity also in the film Rangeela with Jackie Shroff which was her debut film and which also
established her as a sex bomb.


She previously acted in romantic role in the film Narsimha, where the main role was played by Sunny Deol and Om Puri. She never drew attention despite good work in the film.

Urmila had also acted as a girl in a Ram Gopal Verma film titled Bhoot, who did exceptional activities due to involvement with a dead soul. She was treated in the film and it was realised that the ghost wanted to let the people know about the way it was killed in the previous life.

Urmila also acted in Judaai, opposite Anil Kapoor and Sri Devi. Urmila had also performed in item numbers including the song in the film China Gate. Urmila’s performance was appreciated in addition to serious performances from Om Puri, Naseer, Amrish Puri, Paresh Rawal, etc.

In 1998, she earned critical acclaim for her performance in Satya, for which she received another Filmfare nomination. Satya was a critical and commercial success.

Her notable films especially the arty ones are Tehzeeb (2003), Pinjar (2003), Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara (2005) and Bas Ek Pal (2006).

Deepti Naval-Woman of Substance

Deepti Naval was born on August 22, 1957. Deepti Naval is an acclaimed Indian actress. Deepti Naval was born in Amritsar, Punjab, India. She went to the City University of New York and received her Bachelor's degree in Fine Arts at Hunter College in Manhattan.

Deepti Naval started her film career with Ek Baar Phir in 1980. Deepti is known to be a sensitive actress and was a part of the art films and light films of the 80's. Saath Saath , Chashme Buddoor and Mirch Masala are some of her films from the era. Deepti Naval also starred in the critically acclaimed Punjabi film Marhi Da Diva (1989).
Deepti was often cast with Farooq Shaikh. Though considered as talented as Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil, Deepti somehow did not achieve the same stature in terms of awards or memorable casts.

Once she moved out of lead roles, she portrayed character roles in mainstream Hindi films but was not satisfied with the roles she got and took a break. Of late she has made a comeback of sorts with films like Bawandar and Freaky Chakra.

Deepti Naval was recognized as the 2007 Tribute Honoree of the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles. Deepti Naval has substance and then some as she effortlessly weaves magic into her work as an actress, photographer, artist and writer.

Nandita Das Biography

Nandita Das, born 7 November 1969, is an award-winning Indian independent film actress and filmmaker.



This actress revives our memories of the era of a young Smita Patil and Shabana Azmi. Her performances are as realistic as it can get.
Nandita Das started her acting career with a theatre group called Jannatya Manch. She taught at the Rishi Valley School.

She is best known for her performances in Deepa Mehta Filmsn Fire(1996), Earth (1998) alongside Aamir Khan, Bawander(2000) (directed by Jagmohan Mundhra) and Amaar Bhuvan (directed by Mrinal Sen).As a director, she is known for her directorial debut Firaaq (2008), which has won a number of national and international awards.

Das has played storyteller/narrator in the audiobook series for kids
“Under the Banyan” by Karadi Tales. She has also been the narrator in
the audiobook of Mahatma Gandhi’s autobiography by Charkha Audiobooks
“The Story of My Experiments with Truth”. She has also lent her voice
for the children’s series, The Wonder Pets as the Bengal Tiger.

Nandita ventured into direction recently. She has completed filming her directorial debut, Firaaq. Firaaq, a work of fiction, based on a thousand true stories and was set in Gujarat carnage in 2002.

It is an ensemble film that interweaves multiple stories over a 24 hour period, as the characters from different strata of society, grapple with the lingering effects of violence. The film traced the emotional journeys of ordinary people- some who were victims, some perpetrators and some who chose to watch silently. The film’s stellar cast includes Naseeruddin Shah, Raghubir Yadav, Paresh Rawal, Deepti Naval, Sanjay Suri, Tisca Chopra, Shahana Goswami and Nowaz.

The film won top honours at the Asian Festival of First Films 2008 in Singapore, where it won the awards for “Best Film”, “Screenplay / Script”, and “Foreign Correspondents Assn. Purple Orchid Award for Best Film”. The film has also won awards at other international film festivals, including the Special Prize award at the International Thessaloniki Film Festival in Greece, the Special Jury Award at the
International Film Festival of Kerala, and the Best Editor award for the film’s editor Sreekar Prasad at the Dubai International Film Festival.

It was released in India on the 20th of March 2009. The film also won
an award at the Kara Film Festival.

An overwhelmed Nandita Das gladly narrates the experience of seeing Firaaq being so applauded around the world from Toronto, London, Pusan to Kolkata and Trivandrum. Audiences have been able to empathize with the journeys of the characters everywhere. It’s more so in India, where it’s set and hence people can identify with it more.

It’s been said that the film gave a voice to so much that remains silent and that it should be seen at least once. Though it’s always great to win awards at every competitive festival we entered the film in, but it’s actually the audience reaction that really matters to her as a director.

Shabana Azmi - The Biography

Image by Bollywoodzone via Flickr

Shabana Azmi (born 18 September, 1950 in New Delhi, India) is one of the leading actresses of Indian cinema. Also a social activist,her performances in different genres of films have garnered her accolades and awards including five wins of National Film Award for Best Actress.

Shabana Azmi hails from a renowned Muslim family with film connections. Her parents were, Kaifi Azmi - a renowned Indian poet and writer of Urdu, and Shaukat Azmi - a well known stage actress. Her brother, Baba Azmi, is a cinematographer. Her parents had an active social life, and their home was always throbbing with people and activities. Farah, Naaz and Tabu are her nieces.

In the initial stage of her career, she was linked to noted film director Shekhar Kapur, but married Javed Akhtar, a lyricist, poet and Bollywood scriptwriter on 9 December, 1984. It was Akhtar's second marriage, the first being with the Bollywood scriptwriter, Honey Irani.

Early in childhood, the environment in her home inculcated into her a respect for family ties, social and human values; and her parents always supported her to develop a passion for intellectual stimulation and growth. This is greatly reflected in her body of work.

She completed her graduation degree in Psychology from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, followed by a course in Acting at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune. She topped the list of successful candidates of 1972.

Her first movie to be released was Shyam Benegal's Ankur (1972), which won the national award. However, her first film was an art film, made by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, Faalsa, which was released in 1974. Her roles in both the films attracted positive comments both from the reviewers and the audiences.

She received the national awards consecutively for three years from 1983 to 1985 for her roles in movies, Arth, Khandhar and Paar. Another film named Godmother (1999) brought her another national award taking her tally to five national awards.

Shabana's acting has been characterized by a life like real depiction of the roles played by her.

In Mandi, for instance, she acted as a madam of a whorehouse, and to act this role she put on weight and even chewed betel. Real life like portrayals continued in almost all of her movies with a variety of roles, including a tragic role of a woman named Jamini resigned to her destiny in Khandhar, and a typical urban Indian wife, homemaker and mother in Masoom.

She also did many roles in experimental and parallel Indian cinema. Deepa Mehta's 1996 film Fire, depicts her as a lesbian lonely woman, Radha, in love with her sister-in-law (perhaps the first in Indian cinema) and drew severe protests from many social groups of India, and also threats of ban by Indian authorities. Her role as Radha brought her international recognition with the Silver Hugo Award for Best Actress at the 32nd Chicago Film Festival and Jury Award for Best Actress at Outfest, Los Angeles.

Some of her noted films with the legendary film-makers of all times include Shyam Benegal's Nishant (1975), Junoon (1978), Susman (1986), and Antarnaad (1992); Satyajit Ray's Shatranj Ke Khiladi; Mrinal Sen's Khandhar, Genesis, Ek Din Achanak; Saeed Mirza's Albert Pinto Ko Guussa Kyon Aata Hai; Sai Paranjpye's Sparsh and Disha; Gautam Ghose' Paar; Aparna Sen's Picnic and Sati ; Mahesh Bhatt's Arth; Vinay Shukla's Godmother.

Her other films include the commercially successful Amar Akbar Anthony, Parvarish (of Manmohan Desai) and Prakash Mehra's Jwalamukhi.

Azmi has taken on in her spree a number of Hollywood productions, the first being John Schlesinger's Madame Sousatzka (1988), followed by Roland Joffe's City of Joy (1992), among others.

Shabana's debut to the small screen began with her acting in a soap opera with a cause, Anupama, that is, the unique or the unparallel. She did the role of a modern Indian woman who while endorsing the traditional Indian ethos and values negotiated more freedom for herself.

She had also participated in many stage plays, and notable among them include M. S. Sathyu's Safed Kundali (1980), which was a version of the Caucasian Chalk Circle; and Farouque Shaikh's Tumhari Amrita, which ran almost five years.

She toured Singapore for about a month on an assignment by the Singapore Repertory Theatre Company, doing role in Ingmar Bergman's adaptation of Ibsen's Doll House, which was directed by Rey Buono.

Shabana Azmi has been a committed social activist, active in fighting AIDS and injustice in real life. In a Bengali film named Meghla Aakash she played the role of a physician treating AIDS patients. Shabana Azmi has voiced her opinion on a variety of issues. Initially, her activism drew skepticism and was dubbed by some as a publicity gimmick. However, she proved her critics wrong and used her celebrity status to emerge as a high-profile social activist.

She had participated in several plays and demonstrations denouncing communalism.

In 1989, along with Swami Agnivesh and Asghar Ali Engineer, she undertook a four day march for communal harmony from New Delhi to Meerut.

Among the neglected social groups whose causes she has advocated are slum dwellers, displaced Kashmiri Pandit migrants and victims of the earthquake at Latur (Maharashtra, India). The 1993 Mumbai riots appalled her and she emerged as a forceful critic of religious extremism. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, she opposed the advice of an important religious leader calling upon the Muslims of India to join the people of Afghanistan in their fight by retorting that the leader go there alone. Her strong reaction encouraged other moderate Muslim leaders to counsel restraint and tolerance, and to shun terrorism.