Tabu

Tabu (Hindi: तब्बू, born Tabassum Hashmi Khan(तबस्सुम हाश्मी) on November 4, 1970 in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India) is an award-winning Indian actress who has acted in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi and American films. She has won the National Film Award for Best Actress twice. She is best known for her critically acclaimed acting in a number of films rather than achieving box office success.

Despite a few exceptions, Tabu is known best for her willingness to play characters in artistic, low-budget films that go on to garner more critical appreciation than they do substantial box office figures such as in Maqbool (2003), Meenaxi: A Tale of Three Cities (2004) or The Namesake (2007). Known to be selective on her film roles, she has said, "I do films which move me and most of all, the unit and the director should appeal to me."

Career

Tabassum "Tabu" Hashmi began her career in the film Hum Naujawan (1985) at the age of fifteen; she played Dev Anand's daughter in the film. Her first role as an actress was in the Telugu film Coolie No. 1. Her first release in Hindi as a leading lady was Pehla Pehla Pyar which went un-noticed. She came into prominence with her role in Vijaypath (1994) opposite Ajay Devgan for which she received the Filmfare Best Female Debut Award. This was followed by many films that did not do well at the box office.

In 1996, Tabu had eight releases. Two films Saajan Chale Sasural and Jeet went on to be hits; both were within the top five films of that year. Her other significant film, Maachis, was critically acclaimed. Her role as a Punjabi woman caught in the rise of Sikh insurgency was acclaimed; she went on to win her first National Film Award for Best Actress for her performance.

Mamta Kulkarni

Stardust controversy

She gained fame after posing topless (but with her arms crossed over her breasts) for a photograph that appeared on the cover of Stardust, a popular Indian film magazine in September, 1993. She was charged under India's obscenity laws, and found herself under attack from both conservative religious groups, and women's groups. The outspoken actress lashed out at protesters, calling them hypocrites.

Kulkarni was finally convicted in July 2000, and fined Rs 15,000. However, this caused yet another controversy because she appeared in court in a burqa to evade photographers, which led to death threats and protests from the local Islamic community^[1].

Unfortunately for her, Kulkarni's career was not a happy one. Her detractors claim that she could never fit into the class-conscious industry because of her inability to speak fluent English. However, the other view is that the actress's brazen outspokenness antagonised her colleagues. Kulkarni, who spoke with a broad Marathi accent, was reportedly taunted as being a 'vern' (a derogatory term, short for vernacular) by some well-heeled actresses.. Press interviews in which she attacked other actresses, and was attacked in return, worsened the matter further.

At the same time, she continued to be dogged by controversy. In 1997, she was reportedly paid a large amount to perform at a private function by a legislator from Bihar, who was later arrested after investigations into the Fodder Scam case. Kulkarni was interrogated, but she denied any knowledge of the legislator's antecedents^[

Hrishitaa Bhatt

Hrishitaa Bhatt (also spelled as Hrishita Bhat) is a Bollywood actress and model. She debuted in the film Asoka opposite Shah Rukh Khan. It was Haasil that brought major turn into her career. Hrishitaa Bhatt was Acclaimed Actress by this Feature Film and continued to work in films like Ab Tak Chappan and Jigyaasa. In 2008 she appeared in IshQ Bector's music video Daaku Daddy with Shakti Kapoor.

Personal life

Prior to joining the film industry, Bhatt dated actor Shahid Kapoor.

Amrita Arora

Early life

Arora was born in Mumbai, India to a Malayali mother, Joyce Polycarp and a Punjabi father, Anil Arora. she is the sister of Malaika Arora. Her brother-in-law is Arbaaz Khan, the brother of Salman Khan. She was romantically linked to Kevin Otter, Ashmit Patel and Upen Patel. She also dated the British-Pakistani cricketer Usman Afzaal.

Career

She made her debut opposite Fardeen Khan with the film Kitne Door Kitne Paas which was not successful at the box office. Her first successful movie was Awara Paagal Deewana. A series of flop followed, among them the controversial Girlfriend (2004) opposite Isha Koppikar, a movie about a lesbian relationship. Her latest release was Fight Club: Member's Only(2006 Film) produced by Sohail Khan. She appeared on the show Koffee with Karan, hosted by Karan Johar with her sister.

Her next movies will be Deha, Jeet: Feel the Force, all to be released in 2008. In 2007, Red -The Dark Side released starring Aftab Sivdastani, Celina Jaitley and Amrita Arora. There was a controversy over the twenty-seven minute sex scene. Red received mixed reviews at the Box Office. Her upcoming film Raakh will release this august in which she will be paired with Sohail.

Karisma Kapoor

Karisma Kapoor, nicknamed "Lolo" (Hindi: करिश्मा कपूर, born June 25, 1974 in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India) is a National Film Award-winning popular Indian actress who appears in Bollywood films.

Making her film debut in 1991, Kapoor went on to become one of the most popular actresses of her generation. During her career years, she has been part of many commercially and critically successful films, Raja Hindustani being the most notable of them, as it was her biggest commercial success, and won Kapoor her first Filmfare Best Actress Award. She surprised critics and audiences with her performances in art films such as Fiza (2000) and Zubeidaa (2001), for which she earned a Best Actress and Best Actress (Critics) awards at the Filmfare ceremony. Since then, she has worked in several films though most of them performed poorly at the box office. In 2003, Kapoor took a break from cinema and is likely to make her comeback very soon.

Bhumika Chawla

Career

Chawla started off her film career in the Tollywood film industry, starring in the feature film Yuvakudu (2000) in Telugu alongside actor Sumanth. Her second release, Khushi (2001), in which she starred opposite Pawan Kalyan was a box office success. This was followed by several films in Telugu and three films in the Kollywood industry in Tamil.

After a number of critically and commercially successful films, she starred in her first Bollywood film, Tere Naam (2003), alongside Salman Khan. The film was one of the year's highest grossing films and fared moderately well at the box office. Apart from it, it was a critical success and her performance in the film won her many positive notices as well as several nominations for Best Debut at different award ceremonies. She was nominated for her first Filmfare Best Actress Award, and won the Best Debut trophy at the Zee Cine Awards ceremony.

In 2008, she starred alongside Gurdas Mann in the Punjabi film Yaariyan.

She married Bharat Thakur on October 21 2007

Udita Goswami

Career

The green-eyed, 5'8" actress started her career in modeling, then made her jump into the Bollywood industry. She modeled for PepsiCo, Titan Watch and Nokia among other companies.

Her first film was Paap directed by Pooja Bhatt. Her next film Zeher, which also starred Emraan Hashmi and Shamita Shetty, was her breakthrough role and she became a well known face in the industry. Her role was that of a femme fatale. The film was controversial as it included some explicit scenes. She also acted in the movie Aksar, opposite Dino Morea and Emraan Hashmi. She was featured with Upen Patel in Ahmed Khan's music video of the remix of Kya Khoob Lagti Ho.