Bollywood Masala Mix
Jaya Bhaduri's roles epitomized 'middle-class sensibility'
Jaya Bhaduri Bachchan (born Jaya Bhaduri; 9 April 1948) is recognised as one of the finest Hindi film actresses of her time, particularly known for reinforcing a naturalistic style of acting in both mainstream and 'middle-of-the-road' cinema. During her career, she won eight Filmfare Awards including three for Best Actress and three for Best Supporting Actress, which makes her the overall most-awarded performer in the female acting categories, along with Nutan. She was awarded the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007. In 1992, she was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India.
Making her film debut as a teenager in Satyajit Ray's Mahanagar (1963), Bachchan's first screen role as an adult was in Guddi (1971), directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee, with whom she would collaborate in several films. She was noted for her performances in films including Uphaar (1971), Koshish (1972), Kora Kagaz (1974), among others. She appeared alongside her husband Amitabh Bachchan in films such as Zanjeer (1973), Abhimaan (1973), Chupke Chupke (1975), Mili (1975) and Sholay (1975).
Following her marriage to actor Amitabh Bachchan and the birth of her children, Bachchan restricted her film work in the coming years and after her appearance in the 1981 film Silsila, she took an indefinite sabbatical from films. She returned to acting with Govind Nihalani's Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa in 1998. Since then, she has appeared in several commercially successful films such as Fiza (2000), Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001), Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003), all which garnered her critical acclaim as well as several awards and nominations.
Jaya Bhaduri was born in Jabalpur to a Bengali Hindu family. Her mother is Indira Bhaduri and her father, Taroon Kumar Bhaduri, was a writer, journalist and stage artist. She did her schooling from St. Joseph's Convent Sr. Sec. School, Bhopal and was the head girl of her school. She was awarded the Best All-India N.C.C. Cadet Award during the Republic Day celebrations in 1966.
Inspired by her experience with Satyajit Ray in Mahanagar, she decided to join the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune to learn acting where she passed out with the gold medal and was picked to play the eponymous role of Guddi.Guddi was a success, and she moved to Mumbai and soon picked other roles. However her role of a 14-year-old school girl, aided by her petite looks, created the girl-next-door image for her, which she was often associated with through the rest of her career. Though she tried to break out of the mold with glamorous roles as in Jawani Diwani (1972) and a negative character of the heroine faking amnesia, in Anamika (1973), she was mostly recognised for roles of this sort, which were credited with epitomising middle-class sensibility and which she played amiably in films of "middle-cinema" directors like Gulzar, Basu Chatterjee and indeed Hrishikesh Mukherjee. These films include Uphaar (1971), Piya Ka Ghar (1972), Parichay (1972), Koshish (1972) and Bawarchi (1972), with marked sensitivity. By now, she was a popular star.
In Gulzar's Koshish (1973), Bhaduri and Sanjeev Kumar played a deaf couple who struggle through their difficulties as handicapped people. She described the film as "a learning experience" which motivated her to do social work in future.
She first acted with her future husband Amitabh Bachchan in the film Bansi Birju (1972), followed by B.R. Ishara's Ek Nazar also in the same year. Amitabh had undergone a string of flops, and when most lead heroines refused to work him, in Salim-Javed scripted Zanjeer (1973), she stepped into the film. The film turned out to be a hit and gave rise to Amitabh Bachchan's angry-young-man image. This was closely followed by their pairing in films like Abhimaan (1973), Chupke Chupke (1975) and Sholay (1975).
Her daughter Shweta was born while Jaya and Amitabh were working on Sholay. Following this she retired from films and focused on raising her children. Her last film as a lead actress was Silsila (1981), opposite her husband. During the late 1980s, she wrote the story for the film Shahenshah (1988) which starred her husband in the lead. She appeared with her son Abhishek in the films Laaga Chunari Mein Daag (2007) and Drona (2008).
In 2011, she appeared in the Bangladeshi film Meherjaan starring with Victor Banerjee and Humayun Faridi. The film is based on a Bangladesh-Pakistan love story in the backdrop of 1971 Bangladesh atrocities. It is the story of Meherjaan (played by Jaya Bachchan), a Bangladeshi woman who falls in love with a Pakistani army officer who refuses to join the war and saves her from being raped by other Pakistani troops, who do not however spare her cousin Neela and kill her father.
Bachchan was first elected in 2004 as a Samajwadi Party member of parliament, representing the Rajya Sabha, and in February 2010 she stated her intent to complete her term. She was re-elected in 2012.
Bachchan's speech during the music launch of film Drona in the second half of 2008 was criticized by some politicians in Maharashtra. In response to the film's director, Goldie Behl, making his introductory speech in English, she said "Hum UP ke log hain, isliye Hindi mein baat karenge, Maharashtra ke log maaf kijiye". (We are from UP, so we will speak in Hindi. People of Maharashtra, please excuse us). Subsequently, she encouraged actress Priyanka Chopra to speak in Hindi. Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) president Raj Thackeray commented that Jaya had no business alluding to all the people of Maharashtra in that statement. He threatened to ban all Bachchan films unless Jaya apologized in a public forum for hurting Maharashtrians. MNS workers began to attack theaters screening The Last Lear starring her husband, Amitabh Bachchan. Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut also criticized her statement saying: "After making all your success and fortune in Mumbai, if you feel like saying that, we are from UP, its very unfortunate."
Amitabh Bachchan tendered an apology for her statements on her behalf.
The couple has two children: Shweta Bachchan-Nanda and Abhishek Bachchan, who is also an actor. Shweta is married to industrialist Nikhil Nanda of the Kapoor family in Delhi, and has two children, Navya Naveli and Agastya Nanda, while Abhishek Bachchan is married to Aishwarya Rai, and has a daughter, Aaradhya Bachchan.
Making her film debut as a teenager in Satyajit Ray's Mahanagar (1963), Bachchan's first screen role as an adult was in Guddi (1971), directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee, with whom she would collaborate in several films. She was noted for her performances in films including Uphaar (1971), Koshish (1972), Kora Kagaz (1974), among others. She appeared alongside her husband Amitabh Bachchan in films such as Zanjeer (1973), Abhimaan (1973), Chupke Chupke (1975), Mili (1975) and Sholay (1975).
Following her marriage to actor Amitabh Bachchan and the birth of her children, Bachchan restricted her film work in the coming years and after her appearance in the 1981 film Silsila, she took an indefinite sabbatical from films. She returned to acting with Govind Nihalani's Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa in 1998. Since then, she has appeared in several commercially successful films such as Fiza (2000), Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001), Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003), all which garnered her critical acclaim as well as several awards and nominations.
Jaya Bhaduri was born in Jabalpur to a Bengali Hindu family. Her mother is Indira Bhaduri and her father, Taroon Kumar Bhaduri, was a writer, journalist and stage artist. She did her schooling from St. Joseph's Convent Sr. Sec. School, Bhopal and was the head girl of her school. She was awarded the Best All-India N.C.C. Cadet Award during the Republic Day celebrations in 1966.
Inspired by her experience with Satyajit Ray in Mahanagar, she decided to join the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune to learn acting where she passed out with the gold medal and was picked to play the eponymous role of Guddi.Guddi was a success, and she moved to Mumbai and soon picked other roles. However her role of a 14-year-old school girl, aided by her petite looks, created the girl-next-door image for her, which she was often associated with through the rest of her career. Though she tried to break out of the mold with glamorous roles as in Jawani Diwani (1972) and a negative character of the heroine faking amnesia, in Anamika (1973), she was mostly recognised for roles of this sort, which were credited with epitomising middle-class sensibility and which she played amiably in films of "middle-cinema" directors like Gulzar, Basu Chatterjee and indeed Hrishikesh Mukherjee. These films include Uphaar (1971), Piya Ka Ghar (1972), Parichay (1972), Koshish (1972) and Bawarchi (1972), with marked sensitivity. By now, she was a popular star.
In Gulzar's Koshish (1973), Bhaduri and Sanjeev Kumar played a deaf couple who struggle through their difficulties as handicapped people. She described the film as "a learning experience" which motivated her to do social work in future.
She first acted with her future husband Amitabh Bachchan in the film Bansi Birju (1972), followed by B.R. Ishara's Ek Nazar also in the same year. Amitabh had undergone a string of flops, and when most lead heroines refused to work him, in Salim-Javed scripted Zanjeer (1973), she stepped into the film. The film turned out to be a hit and gave rise to Amitabh Bachchan's angry-young-man image. This was closely followed by their pairing in films like Abhimaan (1973), Chupke Chupke (1975) and Sholay (1975).
Her daughter Shweta was born while Jaya and Amitabh were working on Sholay. Following this she retired from films and focused on raising her children. Her last film as a lead actress was Silsila (1981), opposite her husband. During the late 1980s, she wrote the story for the film Shahenshah (1988) which starred her husband in the lead. She appeared with her son Abhishek in the films Laaga Chunari Mein Daag (2007) and Drona (2008).
In 2011, she appeared in the Bangladeshi film Meherjaan starring with Victor Banerjee and Humayun Faridi. The film is based on a Bangladesh-Pakistan love story in the backdrop of 1971 Bangladesh atrocities. It is the story of Meherjaan (played by Jaya Bachchan), a Bangladeshi woman who falls in love with a Pakistani army officer who refuses to join the war and saves her from being raped by other Pakistani troops, who do not however spare her cousin Neela and kill her father.
Bachchan was first elected in 2004 as a Samajwadi Party member of parliament, representing the Rajya Sabha, and in February 2010 she stated her intent to complete her term. She was re-elected in 2012.
Bachchan's speech during the music launch of film Drona in the second half of 2008 was criticized by some politicians in Maharashtra. In response to the film's director, Goldie Behl, making his introductory speech in English, she said "Hum UP ke log hain, isliye Hindi mein baat karenge, Maharashtra ke log maaf kijiye". (We are from UP, so we will speak in Hindi. People of Maharashtra, please excuse us). Subsequently, she encouraged actress Priyanka Chopra to speak in Hindi. Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) president Raj Thackeray commented that Jaya had no business alluding to all the people of Maharashtra in that statement. He threatened to ban all Bachchan films unless Jaya apologized in a public forum for hurting Maharashtrians. MNS workers began to attack theaters screening The Last Lear starring her husband, Amitabh Bachchan. Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut also criticized her statement saying: "After making all your success and fortune in Mumbai, if you feel like saying that, we are from UP, its very unfortunate."
Amitabh Bachchan tendered an apology for her statements on her behalf.
The couple has two children: Shweta Bachchan-Nanda and Abhishek Bachchan, who is also an actor. Shweta is married to industrialist Nikhil Nanda of the Kapoor family in Delhi, and has two children, Navya Naveli and Agastya Nanda, while Abhishek Bachchan is married to Aishwarya Rai, and has a daughter, Aaradhya Bachchan.
Film Academy (IIFA) Festival
India's biggest Bollywood stars lit up an American stadium Saturday with a dazzling celebration of dance, music and fashion at the International Indian Film Academy awards just outside New York.
Held each year in a different city overseas, IIFA is India's biggest media event and one of the world's most-watched annual entertainment shows, with an audience of nearly 800 million people.
Thousands of delighted fans, dressed to the nines in evening gowns, cocktail dresses, saris and jewel-encrusted shalwar kameez, shrieked with delight as the awards got underway at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, a short drive from New York.
A Donald Trump impersonator, introduced as Ronald Grump, tried to lead the crowd in a few strains of song, before actress Alia Bhatt whipped the audience into a frenzy, cheering an upbeat song and signature Bollywood moves with backup dancers in neon costumes. Hosted by Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan and producer-director Karan Johar, it is the culmination of a three-day festival, which kicked off with a fashion show and music in Times Square.
On Friday, the heavens opened during a concert honoring A.R. Rahman, the movie composer who won two Oscars in 2009 for "Slumdog Millionaire" and a green carpet parade of stars in their finery was canceled at the last minute owing to the poor weather.
This year marks the 18th edition of the awards, which some dub the Oscars of Bollywood, at a time of growth for Indian film in North America.
Insiders attribute the increase to the thriving Indian economy, bigger budgets, an increasing South Asian diaspora, and growing popularity among Afghans, Arabs, Russians and Caribbean immigrants.
Increased crossover with Indian stars such as Priyanka Chopra taking on Hollywood is giving India more global exposure.
But if IIFA's hopes to reach out to new audiences by holding its awards ceremony each year overseas, it still has some way to penetrate non-South Asian audiences in the United States.
"The world needs Bollywood movies," actor Anil Kapoor of "Slumdog Millionaire" fame told AFP on the green carpet Saturday, praising their "happiness, smiles, laughter, dance, celebration."
As for the awards themselves "Ae Dil Hai Mushkil" ("This Heart is Complicated") leads the way with eight nominations followed by "M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story", a biopic of former Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, which is nominated for seven awards.
Dubbed Bollywood's Oscars by some, although critics say the awards themselves do not enjoy the same stature.
Held each year in a different city overseas, IIFA is India's biggest media event and one of the world's most-watched annual entertainment shows, with an audience of nearly 800 million people.
Thousands of delighted fans, dressed to the nines in evening gowns, cocktail dresses, saris and jewel-encrusted shalwar kameez, shrieked with delight as the awards got underway at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, a short drive from New York.
A Donald Trump impersonator, introduced as Ronald Grump, tried to lead the crowd in a few strains of song, before actress Alia Bhatt whipped the audience into a frenzy, cheering an upbeat song and signature Bollywood moves with backup dancers in neon costumes. Hosted by Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan and producer-director Karan Johar, it is the culmination of a three-day festival, which kicked off with a fashion show and music in Times Square.
On Friday, the heavens opened during a concert honoring A.R. Rahman, the movie composer who won two Oscars in 2009 for "Slumdog Millionaire" and a green carpet parade of stars in their finery was canceled at the last minute owing to the poor weather.
This year marks the 18th edition of the awards, which some dub the Oscars of Bollywood, at a time of growth for Indian film in North America.
Insiders attribute the increase to the thriving Indian economy, bigger budgets, an increasing South Asian diaspora, and growing popularity among Afghans, Arabs, Russians and Caribbean immigrants.
Increased crossover with Indian stars such as Priyanka Chopra taking on Hollywood is giving India more global exposure.
But if IIFA's hopes to reach out to new audiences by holding its awards ceremony each year overseas, it still has some way to penetrate non-South Asian audiences in the United States.
"The world needs Bollywood movies," actor Anil Kapoor of "Slumdog Millionaire" fame told AFP on the green carpet Saturday, praising their "happiness, smiles, laughter, dance, celebration."
As for the awards themselves "Ae Dil Hai Mushkil" ("This Heart is Complicated") leads the way with eight nominations followed by "M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story", a biopic of former Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, which is nominated for seven awards.
Dubbed Bollywood's Oscars by some, although critics say the awards themselves do not enjoy the same stature.
Megastar Amitabh Bachchan feels its painful when India is tagged as a third world country, and hopes that soon in future it shall no longer be a developing, but a developed nation.
The 74-year-old has praised Indian scientists, who on Friday said that they have identified a previously unknown, extremely large super cluster of galaxies located in the direction of the constellation Pisces and have named it 'Saraswati'.
"The world built another universe...Much like yesterday a bunch of Indian space scientists discovered a galaxy which they felt was billions and multiple times billions the size of our sun... That is like unbelievable... and perhaps that is why they gave a name which most suited it – Saraswati – the goddess of learning! And no one before had ever discovered this," Amitabh posted on his blog on Saturday night.
"India... The developing nation... The third world nation? Painful to be titled thus... and pray and believe that in time it shall no longer be developing but developed in its status and become the first world than the third," he added.
The 'Piku' actor went on to share that once he was called a "third rate actor" during one of his foreign visits.
"The commented criticism when my visit to a foreign land created a furore with the fans and the media... With following and praise and celebration... The veiled threat of my presence in the land decried and derided by one such..."
"'This third rate actor, from the third world country, should leave our shores'. The former is most correct...but the latter shall be persevered to change, to become the first, to be the best and most loved and revered," he added.
The 74-year-old has praised Indian scientists, who on Friday said that they have identified a previously unknown, extremely large super cluster of galaxies located in the direction of the constellation Pisces and have named it 'Saraswati'.
"The world built another universe...Much like yesterday a bunch of Indian space scientists discovered a galaxy which they felt was billions and multiple times billions the size of our sun... That is like unbelievable... and perhaps that is why they gave a name which most suited it – Saraswati – the goddess of learning! And no one before had ever discovered this," Amitabh posted on his blog on Saturday night.
"India... The developing nation... The third world nation? Painful to be titled thus... and pray and believe that in time it shall no longer be developing but developed in its status and become the first world than the third," he added.
The 'Piku' actor went on to share that once he was called a "third rate actor" during one of his foreign visits.
"The commented criticism when my visit to a foreign land created a furore with the fans and the media... With following and praise and celebration... The veiled threat of my presence in the land decried and derided by one such..."
"'This third rate actor, from the third world country, should leave our shores'. The former is most correct...but the latter shall be persevered to change, to become the first, to be the best and most loved and revered," he added.