Who are the most talented and underrated actresses in India?

 10 Brilliant Supporting Actresses In Bollywood Who Deserve More Spotlight Than The Leads

Lead actors and actresses in Bollywood movies may usually be put on a pedestal but when it comes to acting prowess and talent, some supporting actresses have won our hearts. Take a look at some of the most underrated Bollywood divas whom we’ve loved more than the “heroines”:

1. Sayani Gupta

The Bong powerhouse of acting is simply flawless. Period. Although she’s rising up the Bollywood ranks pretty fast, we want her to make her presence felt in the industry!

2. Kubra Sait

Kubra broke a lot of gender stereotypes with her jaw-dropping portrayal of Kuckoo in Sacred Games and we know that she has more to offer than just be a supporting actress for big productions. We want to see her in more movies!

3. Dia Mirza

Dia has been around for a while now and has made a special place in all our hearts but somehow has never been the centre of attention despite owning all the qualities for it. This woman deserves so much more!

4. Divya Dutta

A phenomenal actress, Divya has always been casted for supporting roles and seldom played the part of a protagonist. We genuinely think she’s proven her worth well enough to be under the spotlight.

5. Maanvi Gagroo

Very confidently breaking the stereotypical standards of beauty in Bollywood, Maanvi is our body positive icon and a tremendously good actress. Can we see more of her already?

6. Kalki Koechlin

She’s made her presence felt way too many times for us to ignore what a powerful force she is in the film industry. Kalki deserves to be on our movie and TV screens 24x7 and we’re not even exaggerating!

7. Radhika Apte

Netflix is obsessed with Radhika and so are we. What’s not to love about this gorgeous and immensely versatile actress? She’s one of the only few actresses who genuinely deserve way more recognition and stardom than the existing heroines.

8. Amrita Puri

The Kai Po Che! and Aisha star is an effortless actor when it comes to her body language and acting. We wish to see her in more prominent roles though.

9. Richa Chaddha

Richa has become a household name for all those accustomed to the world of web series but mainstream viewers with conventional choices are yet to discover her massive yet amazing presence.

10. Rasika Duggal

Mirzapur famed Rasika has been around for years but has admitted to being approached only for supporting roles. For all those who’ve watched her on screen know that she’s a brilliant actress and deserves more!

Who are the actresses became stars overnight by giving bold scenes?

 OTT entertainment platform has gained a lot of popularity during the Corona period. The biggest benefit of this is being given to those celebrities, who were not able to show their talent due to lack of big offers in Bollywood. Earlier people liked to watch movies only in theaters, although in the Corona era, most people now like to watch films on OTT. Today in this article we will know about 5 beauties who have gained popularity for doing bold scenes on the OTT platform.

1) Kiara Advani

Bollywood actress Kiara Advani these days is dominated by her tremendous acting in the film Shershah. Although she had earlier surprised everyone by giving a masturbation bold scene in the film Lust Stories streamed on Netflix. This scene of Kiara was discussed for a long time. Strong wind increased Kiara Advani's troubles, Oops moment caught on camera

2) Trisha Choudhary

Actress Trisha Chaudhary did many bold scenes in the web series 'Ashram'. These bold scenes were discussed for a long time and photos of their bold scenes are still quite viral on social media. There is a big difference in the age of these Bollywood couples, there is a difference of 26 years in the age of the NO-3 pair.

3) Aditi Pohankar

Actress Aditi Pohankar became famous overnight after giving bold scenes in the 'She' web series. Apart from this, Aditi also played a tremendous role of Pammi Pehelwan in the Ashram web series.

4) Rasika Duggal

In the Mirzapur web-series that rocked the OTT platform, Rasika gave many bold scenes with Pankaj Tripathi and senior actor Kulbhushan Kharbanda. His work in this series was highly appreciated.

5) Kubra Sait

Kubra Sait played a memorable character of a trans woman in the Sacred Games web series. In this web series, the actress did many bold scenes with veteran Nawazuddin Siddiqui. who have been discussed for a long time

Aside from Radhika Apte and Nandita Das, which Bollywood actresses have donned the director’s hat?

 Many Bollywood actresses have donned the ditector’s hat in their career.

Sadhana- One of the top actresses of 60’s Sadhana got married to filmmaker RK Nayyar who was not a successful or popular figure by any means. Infact he was on the verge of bankruptcy due to multiple flop films. So they decided to make a film in the name of Sadhana. The film was Geeta Mera Naam. The film was directed by RK Nayyar but to evade the lenders to whom he owned money he put the name of Sadhna as director. The film was a moderate success and helped Rk Nayyar pay his debts. The person who was most profited from the success was however Sunil Dutt who was almost out of the industry after the failure of Reshma aur Shera and this was seen as his comeback film.

Hema Malini- After the end of her film career in early 90’s Hema Malini went into production and produced as well as directed some films and TV shows. She directed two films, both on the same story- a young girl trying to find the Identity of her real father. In 1992, she directed Dil Aashna hai starring Divya Bharti, Dimple Kapadia, Sonu Walia, Mithun Chakraborty, Jeetendra and SRK in one of his earliest roles. The film didn't worked well. In 2011 she remade the same story with a few changes to relaunch her daughter Esha Deol in the film Tell Me O Khuda, which clashed with SRK’s Ra.One. Tell Me O Khuda tanked badly. Apart from these two films she directed Noopor, Mohini (telefilm starring her niece Madhoo) and Women of India, three TV shows and television films.

Asha Parekh- Like Hema Malini, Asha Parekh also shifted to television in his late 50’s and directed a few television show including the famous Kora Kagaz, Kangan and Daal me Kuch Kaala Hai.

Revathi- One of the best actresses of Indian cinema, Revathi has worked in Hindi as well as South films and has directed multiple award winning films in Tamil, English and Hindi. In Hindi she has directed Phir Milenge on the issue of AIDS which received a lot of critical acclaim. She also directed Salaam Venky, another film which received a lot of acclaim. Her English film Mitr My Friend won 2 national awards. She also directed one of the segments of the anthology Mumbai Cutting.

Geetu Mohandas- This actress from Kerala has surprisingly not acted in any Bollywood film and has acted in Malayalam films by and large with a few Tamil films. But she has directed Hindi film Liar’s Dice in 2013 which won 2 national awards and was India's entry to Oscars. She also directed Hindi Malayalam bilingual Moothoon in 2019 and is currently directing Yash’s next Pan Indian film Toxic.

Shammi- Largely known for supporting and character roles actress Shammi turned producer in the 1980’s producing the film Pighalta Aasman which was directed by Esmayl Shroff. But after a lot of shooting Esmayl Shroff had a fallout with the cast and producers of the film and walked out. So Shammi took the baton of director and completed the film herself which failed badly at the box office.

Divya Khosla Kumar - largely known as the ex wife of Bhushan Kumar of T Series Divya Khosla Kumar started her career as an actress working in films like Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan Saathiyo which failed. After many years of marital bliss she returned on screen with Yaariyan in 2014 as a director which was a big hit due to its melodious music. After this she returned to acting torturing us with horrible movies like Satyamev Jayate 2 and half a dozen music albums. She has last acted in films like Ek Chatur Naar and Saavi which failed. Having seperated from Bhushan Kumar ideally her acting career may have also come to an end.

Why is the Tamil film industry dominated by non-Tamil actresses? What happened with Tamil girls in Tamil Nadu? Why is it rare to find Tamil actresses?

 Nowadays we find many actresses from other regions acting for different languages.

The Tamil Film industry is dominated by non-tamil actresses as there aren’t many ladies from TN as an actress. Audiences would love to different kind of ladies on the screen. I find the actresses who knows the language or brought up from that language cultures acts well for that language films.

Let’s talk about actresses from TN who made big in Kollywood

Samantha Akkinenni

This lady is from TN. She acted in Tamil and Telugu films. After marriage, she got only telugu offers. Hopefully she gets some offers too. She was last seen in Family Man. She was seen as a Sri Lankan tamilian. It was nice to see her doing this kind of role.

Aishwarya Rajesh

This lady is tamilian. She is current young actress from TN who is active in tamil films. She is also active in Telugu.

I just like her.

Regina Cassandra

This lady is also from TN. She has done good number of films. She impressed me from Chakra film. Her first film as antagonist.

Andrea Jeremiah

This lady is also from TN. She has done good number of films and is also a good actress. She has a good number of upcoming tamil films.

Trisha Krishnan

Another nice lady actress from TN. She has played in many telugu and tamil films. She is one of the bold actress

It isn’t rare to find. There aren’t many ladies from TN aspiring to become an actress. Acting is also required. They also should be suited to the role. If they aren’t, the makers go for other actresses.

How can we justify Dia Mirza's statement that older actors are bizarre with young actresses?

Rajinikanth was 65 years old and Sonakshi Sinha was around 27. Thats 38 years. She was younger than Rajinis daughters who were 33 and 29.

Most of the audience in TN.did not find it bizzare. Yes the movie was awful but i didnt actually even think about the age gap.

Rajini could play 35–40 even at 65

Ajith was 47 years old. Kajal was 31 years old. The difference was 16 years. Less than.half of the difference between Rajini and Sonakshi. Yet i remember thinking - Ajith looks like her father in the scenes.

Ajith looks 47 and is 47

Its called perception.

Not everyone knows how old the actors are. On.the Screen, the Actor is a character and the actress is a character. Its the characters whose chemistry is crucial, not the actors.

Ajith (41) and Trisha (28) clicked in this movie. Their characters were apt. It was Vinayak and not Ajith people saw. Vinayak was apt for Trisha.

Ajith plays 37–40 at 41 but the story creates a believable pairing as the age gap.fits.

Kamal was 53 -54 yrs and Trisha 26 - Yet Major Mannar (Character) looks perfectly apt with Ambujakshi (Character).

He plays 38–42 though he is 53–54.

Here Andrea is 29 and Kamal is 60. Nearly the same age difference but here he looks like an Old Lecher seducing a young girl.

Here Kamal looks 60 and plays 60.

Prabhu was 44 and Ramya Krishna 29 at the time of this movie. Yet Prabhu played 32–35 and somehow managed to achieve it. The pairing was believable.

So in the end:

Its the Character and not the Acto. If the Characters are apt, nothing looks weird. If the Characters are not apt, everything looks weird.

Actors like Rajkumar played romantic roles with heroines half his age yet nobody realized this as the characters were apt and his charcter could play 35–40 even though he was himself 65.

Meanwhile Sivaji played romantic roles aged 50 but looked 55 and so looked like the heroines father.

I have used Tamil Cinema because the age differences are much more in Tamil Cinema than Bollywood.

How many actresses have worked with Amitabh Bachchan for 5 or more times?

 Many actresses have worked with Amitabh in 5 films or more. I will count only lead actresses.

Jaya Bhaduri - Jaya Bachchan or Bhaduri worked with Amitabh in multiple films- Ek Nazar, Bansi Birju (both flops), Zanjeer (Blockbuster), Abhiman (Above Average), Sholay (All Time Blockbuster), Mili (Average) and Chupke Chupke (Semi Hit), Silsila (Average). Later they came together for K3G (Blockbuster). Amitabh also did cameos in Guddi and Bawarchi (voiceover).

Rekha - Amitabh and Rekha paired many times including two films where they worked together but were not paired opposite each other. These two worked together in Namak Haram (not paired together, Semi Hit), Do Anjaane (Above Average), Khoon Pasina (Semi Hit), Ganga ki Saugandh (Above Average), Alaap (Flop), Muqaddar ka Sikandar (Blockbuster), Suhaag (Hit), Alaap (Disaster), Imaan Dharam (not paired together, flop), Ram Balram (Semi Hit), Mr.Natwarlal (Semi Hit) and Silsila (Average). Rekha dubbed the voice of Sridevi in Aakhree Raasta and Soundarya and Jayasudha in Sooryavansham.

Hema Malini- Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini worked in almost one dozen films but were not paired in every film. They worked in Gehri Chaal (not paired together, Flop), Kasauti (Above Average), Sholay (not paired together, All Time Blockbuster), Trishul (Not paired together, Superhit), Naseeb (Hit), Do aur Do Paanch (Not paired, Flop), Satte pe Satta (Semi Hit), Deshpremi (Average), Nastik (Above Average), Andha Kanoon (Superhit), Baghban (Superhit), Veer Zaara (Super Hit), Babul (Flop).

Zeenat Aman - Zeenat Aman and Amitabh acted in many superhit films including Roti Kapda aur Makaan (not paired together, Blockbuster), Don (Superhit), Great Gambler (Flop), Ram Balram (Not paired together, Semi Hit), Dostana (Hit), Lawaris (Superhit), Pukar (Below Average), Mahaan (Flop).

Parveen Babi - Amitabh Bachchan and Parveen Babi were paired together in Majboor (Semi Hit), Deewar (Blockbuster), Amar Akbar Anthony (Blockbuster), Suhaag (not paired together, Hit), Kaalia (Above Average), Shaan (Below Average), Do aur Do Paanch (Flop), Namak Halal (not paired, Blockbuster), Khuddar (Hit), Mahaan (Flop)

Jayaprada - Amitabh Bachchan and Jayaprada have worked together in films like Sharaabi (Hit), Aakhree Raasta (Semi Hit), Ganga Jamuna Saraswati (Average), Jadugar (Disaster), Aaj ka Arjun (Superhit), Indrajeet (Flop), Insaniyat (Flop), Khakee (Average)

Rakhee- Amitabh Bachchan and Rakhee worked together in films like Kabhi Kabhi (Semi Hit), Muqaddar ka Sikandar (Blockbuster), Trishul (Superhit), Kaala Patthar (Average), Jurmana (Average), Barsaat ki Ek Raat (Average), Bemisal (Average), Shaan (not paired, Below Average), Lawaris (not paired, played his mother in flashback Superhit), Shakti (not paired, played his mother, Below Average)

Neetu Singh-Adalat (Semi Hit), Kabhi Kabhi (not paired, Semi Hit), Parvarish (Superhit), Kaala Paththar (not paired, average), Amar Akbar Anthony (not paired, Blockbuster), Great Gambler (Flop), Yaarana (Above Average)

Sharmila Tagore - Besharam (Average), Faraar (Flop), Chupke Chupke (not paired, Semi Hit), Desh Premee (Average), Viruddh (Flop)

Waheeda Rehman - Reshma aur Shera (Disaster), Kabhi Kabhi (Semi Hit), Adalat (Semi Hit), Mahaan (Flop), Namak Halal (played his mother, not paired, Blockbuster), Coolie (played his mother, Blockbuster)

Aishwarya Rai (not paired)- Mohabbatein (Blockbuster), Ham Kisi se Kam Nahi (Flop), Kyon Ho Gaya Na (Flop), Bunty aur Babli (Aishwarya in an item song), Sarkaar Raj (Below Average)

Rani Mukherjee (not paired)- Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gam (Blockbuster), Veer Zaara (Super Hit), Bunty aur Babli (Superhit), Paheli (Flop), Black (Hit) , Kabhi Alvida Na Kahna (Semi Hit), Babul (Flop)

Who are some underrated Indian actresses?

We are at the point in the industry where underrated actors are being rated according to their abilities. But even after choosing correct scripts and directors- actresses are still being used as a side piece despite their performances.

This is the producers fault in not letting many actresses in the industry- and only choosing ones with a market. It’s not a fault though as movies are a business and they need face value. I don’t have a financially positive solution for this, but I can underline some actresses that deserve more and can bring freshness into our cinema today.

Will organize this list by the language films by their best known for. This is in order from the best on top.

TELUGU:

• Mrunal Thakur - Sita Ramam, Family Star, Hi Nanna

Despite being the best contemporary actress (probably after Sai Pallavi) she isn’t getting enough chances. My favorite actress on this post.

• Sreleela - Guntur Kaaram, Dhamaka, Bhagavanth Kesari

Right now best looking telugu actress. Her acting hasn’t been explored at all but she has scope. Her role in Guntur Kaaram wasn’t bad and she lit up screens. She is also a fantastic dancer- probably best among actresses. She can be a good commercial actress- directors and producers need to start trusting her into their good projects. She has good face value.

• Shraddha Das - Arya 2, PSV Garuda Veda, Guntur Talkies

She has given good performances in her Telugu films and they have been hits. Not sure why she hasn’t gone mainstream since Arya 2.

TAMIL:

Sri Divya - VVS, Kaaki Sattai, Meiyazhagan

Most underused actress in Tamil Cinema. She is an actress with no haters. We all were so happy to see her in Meiyazhagan. She’s a very positive energy actress she makes everyone smile. All of her performances were good- and she still looks absurdly young. We still have a chance to utilize her well. Meiyazhagan set it.

• Aishwarya Lekshmi - Ponniyan Selvan, King of Kotha, Maayanadhi

Similar situation to Aishwarya Rajesh. Good performer but less chances. She does get movies like PS and KOK but none of them clicked in the way in that she gets something out of it. She can do every role and with conviction.

• Siddhi Idvani - VTK, Kerala Story, TGGM

Extremely good actress. She got introduced by Simbu in 2022 in tamil and she gave a good performance in VTK. That film is very underrated itself nobody can appreciate classy films like these anymore. She can do any role with conviction and she looks good too. Her performance in VTK and in the songs is incredible.

HINDI:

Radhika Apte - Badlapur, Kabali, Andhadun

She’s become an international actress and is getting praise there- but here home she’s not getting what she deserves. Sure she lands the occasional good film but in all she’s been pushed out of mainstream.

Anaitha Nair - Chak De India, Dum Maaro Dum, Mumbai Calling

I’ve only seen Chak De India from her and she was impressive. Don’t know why producers won’t give actresses a chance after a good performance and movie. They can see it works.

Sanya Malhotra - Dangal, Sam Bahadur, Jawan

Brilliant performer can do every role- even side roles like in Jawan. She is perfect actress material and deserves to be more mainstream