Sunday 20 March 2011

Vijayashanti

Vijayashanti is an Indian film actress and a politician from Andhra Pradesh. She has acted in over 185 movies in seven languages including Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi. She was born in Warangal, Andhra Pradesh, India on 24 June 1966. She is credited as "The Lady Superstar" of South Indian cinema. She has won the National Film Award (Best Actress) for Karthavyam in 1991. She played a wide variety of roles including glamorous roles,action heroine, tough cop, Goddess, sentimental roles and proved herself in all roles.She is ever rememberd for her versatality including acting, dancing, fighting skills.

Background and career
Vijayashanti, whose given name was 'Shanti', is a politician and is the elected MP from the Medak constituency in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Prior to joining politics in 2004, she was a leading actress in Telugu and Tamil films. She began her acting career in 1979 at the age of 13 as the leading lady in the Tamil film Kallukkul Eeram ("Stones Have Tears") directed by the legendary Tamil film-maker Bharati Raja. The same year, she debuted in her native Telugu with the movie Kilaadi Krishnudu ('Cunning Krishna'), pairing opposite superstar Krishna. For the first few years, she portrayed mostly glamour roles. Notable among them is her role in the Telugu film Satyam-Shivam (1981), the cast of which included the two legends of Telugu Cinema - NTR,and ANR. She is believed to be married Srinivas Prasad and having two children. It's never disclosed to

Glamour Queen & Dream Girl
Vijayashanti's first break as a performer came in the 1983 Telugu film Neti Bharatam directed by T. Krishna. The next few years saw her in performance-oriented roles (Desamlo Dongalu Paddaaru, Vandemaataram, Pratighatana, Aruna kiranam, Repati Pourulu, Devalayam, etc.), and in glamorous roles (Challenge, Desodhdhaarakudu, Pasivaadi Praanam, Muddula Krishnaiah, Agni Parvatam, Gang Leader etc.). By 1985 she was exclusively acting in Telugu films. She became a Glamour Queen of the Telugu film industry.

As an action heroine and mass entertainer
In the blockbuster movie Karthavyam (1990), her performance as a tough cop (modeled after real-life supercop Kiran Bedi) won her the National Film Award from Indian Government and an Andhra Pradesh State award for best actress.She became third women to win national award for best actress from Telugu industry. The success of this movie saw her moving away from glamorous roles and limiting herself to tough lady roles. These tough lady roles made her a lady super star in Telugu.
In 1990, Kartavyam was dubbed into Tamil as Vijayanthi IPS and its success brought her actress in Tamil cinema as well. (It was also remade in Hindi as Tejaswini, with herself playing the lead role. As expected, Tejaswini did very well at the Hindi box-office). Following the success of Vijayanthi IPS, the producers of her films began releasing Tamil versions of her movies simultaneously with the Telugu Movies. After she started concentrating on Action roles. some thing special is her nativity showing

A lady superstar of telugu cinema
She was treated as one of the superstars in the Telugu cinema.She never turned towards maternity roles and supporting characters.She is the top heroin for two decades.She is the only actress of south India who is treated with an image equal to that of male super stars.
Two of her very close friends are Suhasini Mani Ratnam who has been instrumental in improving her hair dressing skills and her competitor Radha, with whom she shares special friendships. In fact, in one of the interviews to a Telugu magazine, Vijayashnathi has mentioned that she considers Suhasini as her elder sister who has been protective of her in her difficult times.

Political career
In 1997 she started her political career by joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Soon she was made the secretary of BJP's Women's Wing (Bharateeya Mahila Morcha). During the 1999 Indian general elections she was named BJP's contestant from the Cuddapah Lok Sabha seat against Sonia Gandhi of Congress(I) (however, she withdrew from the race after Sonia Gandhi decided to contest from Bellary). She started her own political party, Talli Telangana, which merged into Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in January 2009.
From 1999 her movie appearances decreased as she focused on her political career. By 2004 she had stopped signing new films. In 2009 General Election of 15th Lok Sabha she won Medak seat. She is actively participating in the telangana agitation for a separate state for the telangana region.


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Thursday 17 March 2011

Vyjayanthimala

Vyjayanthimala Bali (Tamil: வைஜெயந்திமாலா பாலி; born on August 13, 1936) is an former Indian film actress, trained Bharathanatyam dancer and was a part-time Member of Parliament.
Born into a orthodox Tamil Brahmin family, Vyjayanthi was introduced at the age 15 in the world of cinema by her family friend M. V. Raman through a bilingual Tamil/Telugu film Vazhkai or Jeevitham (alternate title) produced by AVM Productions. The success of the film helped Vyjayanthi and AVM Productions to foray into Bollywood with the film Bahar. The latter also became a hit at thr box office. Following the huge box office success of Nagin, Vyjayanthi established herself as one of the biggest Bollywood actress beside being a successful Tamil actress — which also paved the pave for other South Indian actresses to conquer Bollywood. Her films typically feature her at least one item number, which is expected by her fans.
Some of her movies have been critically acclaimed beside being hit at box office. Those films are Devdas, Sadhna, Sangam, Suraj, Jewel Thief and Prince in Hindi and Vanjikottai Valiban, Baghdad Thirudan, Then Nilavu, Parthiban Kanavu and Irumbu Thirai in Tamil. Vyjayanthi was a hit pair with Dilip Kumar: Madhumati, Naya Daur, Gunga Jumna, Paigham and Leader. Vyjayanthi hade box office hits in comedy roles with Kishore Kumar in movies like Aasha and New Dehli.
She left the industry after another critically acclaimed historical Hindi film Amparali which based on life of the nagarvadhu (royal courtesan) of Vaishali. Amrapali flopped miserably at the box office though other prominent directors such as B. R. Chopra felt that she could have easily continued for another decade in lead roles.
Besides film, Vyjayanthi main concentration was in Bharata Natyam a form of Indian classical dance. She was an accomplish dancer who she introduced a lot of semi-classical dance in Bollywood. After quitting movies Vyjayanthi continues with her dance career.

Early life
Vasundhara Devi, Vyjayanthi's mother in Mangama Sabatham
Born in Madras in a orthodox Tamil Brahmin family, Vyjayanthi did her schooling at Sacred Heart Church Park Convent, Chennai. Her mother, Vasunthara Devi, was a leading actress in Tamil Cinema in 1940s when her film Mangama Sabatham was the first ever Tamil film to be declared a colossal hit at the box office.During her childhood, her mother abandoned her and she was reared by her grandmother, Yadugiri Devi, and her father, M.D. Raman. At age 5, Vyjayanthi danced for Pope Pius XII while her mother shared the honor with a audience in 1940. She was affectionately called as "Papakutty" (little child) by everyone. 

Acting career
Early career: Debut and breakthrough, (1949-1953)

When director M. V. Raman was looking for a new face to cast in AVM Productions's Vazhkai, he saw Vyjyanthi performing Bharata Natyam in Chennai Gokhale Hall. Then he try to convince her grandmother, who was apprehensive about Vyjayanthi in joining films as she felt it would come in the way of her education and dance. Vyjayanthi played as college girl named Rani and acted along with veterans C. H. Narayana Rao, S. Varalakshmi, T. R. Ramachandran and C. S. R. Anjaneyulu. The movie was a big success and being remade in Telugu as Jeevitham with the same cast and crew, the later also taste success. She also dubbed her own voice for Telugu version since her father knew Telugu well and assist her during the filming process. In 1950, Vyjayanthi also done a guest appearance in the film Vijayakumari, where she danced for the song "laalu...laalu...laalu" which was choreographed by Vedantam Raghavaiah. Though the movie fails at box office but her song particularly her western-style dance becomes popular and considered as one of the major highlights of the movie.
The success of Vazhkai in South India has made AVM Productions to remade it in Hindi as Bahar in 1951. In their first Hindi venture, they decided to cast Vyjayanthi again in the same role with Karan Dewan, Om Prakash and Pandari Bai who was credited as Padmini in the film.[8] She was the only South Indian actress who did not dub her dialogue as she studied Hindi at the Hindi Prachar Sabha. Upperstall.com in their review, wrote that "She does bring the film to life with her dances though, something which was new then for the North Indian audiences". The movie becomes sixth highest grossing film of 1951 with verdict hit.
After the success of all her debut film in all three languages, Vyjayanthi gain acted in multilingual film which also produce by Avichi Meiyappa Chettiar of AVM Productions. The first one is in Tamil as Penn acted by Vyjayanthi with S. Balachandran, Gemini Ganesan and Anjali Devi. The song "Kalyanam...venum" sang by J. P. Chandrababu for S. Balachandran becomes a instant hit. The film then remade in Telugu as Sangham in the same year with N. T. Rama Rao, Vyjayanthi, S. Balachandran and Anjali Devi in the lead. The former and the latter was a big success across South India. The film once again remade in Hindi as Ladki starred by Bharat Bhushan, Kishore Kumar while Vyjayanthi and Anjali Devi reprises their role from the original respectively. Her performance was described by Upperstall as, "Vyjayanthimala's dances that are the film's saving graces although it is unintentionally funny now to see how deliberate and obviously tacky the sequences are which lead into her dances[...]Ladki too makes no real demands on 'feminist' tomboy Vyjayanthimala histrionically". The movie becomes second highest grossing film of 1953 with verdict hit.

Turning point in Bollywood films
After tasting successes with her previous Hindi movies, Vyjayanthi the acted in magnum opus Nagin with Pradeep Kumar. The film initially got favorable response from the audience and becomes the highest grossing movie of 1954 with verdict blockbuster thus established her as one of the leading actress in Bollywood. Hemant Kumar's music and her dance accompanying the song, Man Dole, Mera tan dole, sang by Lata Mangeshkar was the highlights of the film. Bimal Roy cast her as Chandramukhi opposite Dilip Kumar in the critically acclaimed Devdas. She subsequently starred in four successful films opposite Dilip Kumar: Madhumati, Ganga Jamuna, Leader, and Naya Daur. The first two of those four roles earned her Filmfare Best Actress Awards. She also received a Filmfare nomination as Best Actress for portraying in Sadhna' a tawaif (a courtesan) who eventually got rehabilitated in the society. She costarred with Raj Kapoor in Sangam which earned her the Filmfare Best Actress Award. (She denied rumors of an affair with Raj Kapoor during the production of Sangam, saying that it was a publicity stunt by Kapoor to boost his image.
Vyjayanthimala starred in the 1966 historical epic, Amrapali, based on the life of the legendary Buddhist courtesan Amrapali. The movie was not a commercial success, and the commercial failure much disappointed her as she considered it the magnum opus of her career. Later, she said that she would like to see a remake of that movie, with Madhuri Dixit playing her role.
She costarred with Dev Anand in Jewel Thief, with Rajendra Kumar in Suraj, with Shammi Kapoor in Prince, and with Kishore Kumar in his inane yet zany comedies,including the blockbuster New Delhi. Vyjayanthimala's Tamil movies included Vanjikottai Valiban, Irumbuthirai, Then Nilavu, Vaazhkai, Penn, Parthiban Kanavu (old), and Baghdad Thirudan.

Personal life
Vyjayanthimala married Bali. After marriage, she terminated her acting career and moved to Chennai. She has a son, Suchindra Bali, by Dr. Bali. After she moved to Chennai, she entered politics as a member of the Lok Sabha (lower house). Later, she was nominated as a member of the Rajya Sabha (upper house). In 2007, she published her autobiography, titled Bonding, with Jyoti Sabarwal as co-writer.

Filmography
    * Vazhkai (1949)
    * Bahar (1951)
    * Nagin (1954)
    * Devdas (1955)
    * New Delhi (1956)
    * Aasha (1957)
    * Naya Daur (1957)
    * Madhumati (1958)
    * Paigham (1959)
    * Aas Ka Panchhi (1961)
    * Ganga Jamuna (1961)
    * Nazrana (1961)
    * Dr Vidya (1962)
    * Rangoli (1962)
    * Leader (1964)
    * Sangam (1964)
    * Ishaara (1964)
    * Zindagi (1964)
    * Amrapali (1966)
    * Suraj (1966)
    * Jewel Thief (1967)
    * Choti Si Mulaqat (1967)
    * Sunghursh (1968)
    * Prince (1969)
    * Ganwaar (1970)

Awards
    * 1956 - Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award, for a role in Devdas. Vyjayanthimala did not accept the award, her contention being that her role in that movie was that of the main actress rather than a supporting actress. (That was the first time a person had declined to receive a Filmfare Award.)
    * 1958 - Filmfare Best Actress Award, for a role in Madhumati
    * 1958 - Nomination for Filmfare Best Actress Award, for a role in Sadhna'
    * 1961 - Filmfare Best Actress Award, for a role in Ganga Jamuna
    * 1961 - BFJA Award for Best Actress for her role in Ganga Jamuna
    * 1964 - Filmfare Best Actress Award, for a role in Sangam
    * 1968 - Padma Shri Award
    * 1982 - Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, 1982 for Bharatanatyam
    * 1996 - Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award
    * 2004 - "Legend of Indian Cinema" Award at Atlantic City (United States).
    * 2005 - Lifetime Achievement Award at the Bollywood Movie Awards
    * 2006 - Sivaji Award 2006
    * 2009 - ANR National Award

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Waheeda Rehman

Waheeda Rehman (Hindi: वहीदा रहमान), born on 14 May 1936 is a famous Indian film actress who appears in Bollywood movies, most notably C.I.D. (1956) and Guru Dutt classics such as Pyaasa (1957), Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959) and Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962).

Early life
One of the most prominent actresses of the golden era, Waheeda Rehman was born into a traditional Muslim family in Chengalpattu, Tamil Nadu, India. She and her sister learnt Bharatnatyam at Mumbai's Sri Rajarajeswari Bharata Natya Kala Mandir, where Guru T. K. Mahalingam Pillai, doyen among nattuvanars taught  and performed on stage together. Her father, who was a District Commissioner, died while she still in her teens.
Many people believe that Rehman was born in Hyderabad. “It’s a long story,” she says, “When I was in Chennai, I did three to four Tamil and Telugu movies. In the first one, Kaalam Maari Pochu along with Gemini Ganesan a bilingual film which was made in Tamil and Telugu as Rojulu Maraayi, I did only a folk dance number in both Tamil and Telugu versions. However, it went on to become a hit! I was in Hyderabad celebrating its success and Guru Dutt happened to be there. He was on a lookout for new faces and heard that I could speak in Urdu. It is because he spotted me in Hyderabad that people assume I was born there.”
Her dream was to become a doctor but, due to circumstances and illness, she abandoned this goal. Instead helped by her supportive parents, she hit the silver screen with Telugu films Jayasimha (1955), followed by Rojulu Marayi (1955)and Tamil film Kaalam Maari Pochu(1956). It is interesting to know that Waheeda Rehman acted again in her native Telugu movie "Bangaru Kalalu"(Golden dreams) with A.Nageswara Rao in 1974 even after she moved to Hindi field. It is in Vijaya-Suresh combines "Ram aur Shyam"(Remake of Telugu movie "Ramudu Bheemudu)in 1967 that Waheeda acted again under the direction of the topnotch Telugu director Tapi Chanakya who incidentally directed her movies "Rojulu Maaraayi"in Telugu(1955) and Kaalam Maaripochu in Tamil(1956).

Career
Waheeda Rehman was discovered by Guru Dutt in a film and was brought to Bombay (now Mumbai) and cast as a vamp in his production C.I.D. (1956), directed by Raj Khosla. A few years after joining the Hindi film industry, she lost her mother. After the success of C.I.D., Dutt gave her a leading role in Pyaasa (1957). Their next venture together, Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959), depicted the story of a successful director's decline after he falls for his leading lady. Dutt's existing marriage and her film successes with other directors caused them to drift apart personally and professionally, although they continued to work together into the 1960s Chaudhvin Ka Chand. She completed Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962) under some strain. They broke away from each other after the film's indifferent reception at the Berlin Film Festival in 1963. Soon afterward, Guru Dutt died on 10 October 1964 in Mumbai reportedly from an overdose of sleeping pills and alcohol. Rahman was cast as "Gulabi" in Satyajit Ray's Bengali film Abhijan in 1962.


Later careerHer career continued throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. She won the Filmfare Best Actress Award for her roles in Guide (1965), where she hit the peak of her career and Neel Kamal (1968), but despite excellent offbeat roles in subsequent films, including a National award winning performance in Reshma Aur Shera (1971), some of the films failed at the box office. At around this time, Kamaljit who starred opposite her in Shagun (1964) proposed. She accepted and they were married on 27 April 1974. After her marriage, she shifted to a farmhouse in Bangalore. She bore two children named Sohail and Kashvi. After her appearance in Lamhe (1991) she retired from the film industry for 12 years. On 21 November 2000, her husband died following a prolonged illness. She moved back to her ocean view bungalow in Bandra, Bombay where she lives currently.
In recent years she made a comeback playing elderly mother and grandmother roles in Om Jai Jagadish (2002), Water (2005) and Rang De Basanti (2006) and Delhi 6 (2009) which were all critically acclaimed.
In October 2004, a Waheeda Rehman film retrospective was held at the Seattle Art Museum and the University of Washington where Waheeda participated in spirited panel and audience discussions on her most memorable films — Pyaasa, Teesri Kasam and Guide — although her most successful film is still considered to be Khamoshi, with costar Rajesh Khanna.

Awards
    * National Film Award for Best Actress for Reshma Aur Shera in 1971.
    * Filmfare Best Actress Award for Guide in 1966
    * Filmfare Best Actress Award for Neel Kamal in 1968
    * Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards, Best Actress (Hindi) for Teesri Kasam in 1967, and for Sunghursh in 1969.
    * Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award in 1994
    * NTR National Award for 2006.
    * Padma Shri in 1972.
    * Padma Bhushan in 2011.

Nominations
    * Filmfare Nomination as Best Supporting Actress--Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962)
    * Filmfare Nomination as Best Actress--Ram Aur Shyam (1967)
    * Filmfare Nomination as Best Actress--Khamoshi (1970)
    * Filmfare Nomination as Best Supporting Actress--Kabhi Kabhie (1976)
    * Filmfare Nomination as Best Supporting Actress--Namkeen (1982)
    * Filmfare Nomination as Best Supporting Actress--Lamhe (1991)

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