What are the challenges faced by actresses in Bollywood who are labeled with a "non-glamorous" image, and how do they navigate their careers?

 Meet Smita Patil

One of the finest actresses of Indian cinema, but never got the same recognition in commercial cinema because of her unconventional looks and lack of glamour. Problem arose when it started affecting her work in art films as well.

Smita was replaced by Shabana Azmi from the National Award winning film Sparsh because the producers wanted a more saleable face to sell the film to distributors at good price. Shabana Azmi was more popular commercially with films like Amar Akbar Anthony, Fakira and Parvarish etc. This exclusion hurt Smita so badly that she decided to work in commercial cinema and prove her commercial viability. She signed films like Shakti, Namak Halal, Chatpati, Badle ki Aag etc. Problem was that she couldn't adjust to the commercial style of filmmaking. She was so disturbed by the picturization of Aaj Rapat Jaaye from Namak Halaal that she was in tears saying “I didn't came to films to do this”. Otherwise also her performance and dance in films like Badle ki Aag was heavily criticized and she said that she can't dance with latke jhatke and thumkas as Reena Roy can.

Shabana Azmi herself faced the same problem. She came with a bang in the industry winning a National award but she was very awkward working in commercial films. During Fakira, she had to do a romantic scene with Shashi Kapoor and she couldn't do the typical romantic heroine role, she was also in tears. Also she remembers she was badly scolded by the dance master during the shooting of Parvarish because she was dancing alongside Neetu Singh who was trained in Bollywood style dancing.

Many actresses who were labelled with non glamorous image tried to change their image end up losing their credibility as a performer because more often than not they are not accepted in glamorous roles by the audience.

Has any Bollywood actress consistently delivered box office hits like the male superstars, and why or why not?

 There are many such actresses who have delivered consistent hits (sometimes more than their male counterparts).

Hema Malini gave 13 hits between 1974–75. This includes 1 All Time Blockbuster, 1 Blockbuster, 3 Superhits. In 1974 Hema Malini delivered the 3rd highest grosser (Dost), 4th highest grosser (Prem Nagar), 6th highest grosser (Amir Garib), 8th highest grosser (Patthar aur Payal), 10th highest grosser (Haath ki Safai), 16th Highest grosser (Kasauti) and an average grosser (Dulhan)

In 1975 she had Sholay (All Time Blockbuster, HGOTY), Sanyasi (Blockbuster, 3rd highest grosser), Pratigya (Superhit 5th highest grosser), Dharmatma (10th highest grosser), Do Thug (15th hughest grosser, moderate grosser), Khushboo (critically acclaimed moderate grosser)

Similarly Reena Roy in 1982 did 13 films out of which 8 were average grossers or hit. Jiyo aur Jeeno Do (3.10 crores), Baghavat (3.30 crores), Dharam Kanta (3 crores), Sanam Teri Kasam (2.30 crores), Hathkadi (2.8 crores), Dard ka Rishta (critically acclaimed success) were hits and Main Inteqam Loonga (2.50 crores), and Badle ki Aag (2.60 crores) were average. Even Bezubaan (1.75 crores) was critically acclaimed.

Sridevi had brilliant years in 1983–84 and 86–87. In 1983–84 she had six major hits- Himmatwala (6 crores, 4th hughest grosser), Justice Chaudhary (4.25 crores, 8th highest grosser) Mawali (4.75 crores 6th highest grosser), Jani dost (9th highest grosser), Tohfa (highest grosser of 1984) and Maqsad(2nd highest grosser of 1984). Add to that Sadma and Jaag utha Insan received critical acclaim.

In 1986, The highest grosser was Karma with Sridevi, 2nd highest grosser was Aakhiri Rasta with Sridevi, 3rd highest grosser was Nagina with Sridevi. 5th highest grosser was Ghar Sansar with Sridevi and sixth highest grosser was Janbaaz with Sridevi. In 1987 she had hits- Mr.India (5 crores, 2nd highest grosser), Watan ke Rakhwale (4.25 crores 5th highest grosser), Jawab Ham Denge (2.8 crores).

In 1989, Madhuri Dixit had 9 releases with 0 flops. She had two major Blockbusters- Ram Lakhan (9 crores, 2nd highest grosser) and Tridev (8.5 crores 3rd highest grosser), and 5 hits (Prem Pratigyaa, Ilaka, Mujrim, Vardi and Parinda), and 2 average grossers (Kanoon Apna Apna) and Paap ka Ant.

In 1996–97 and 1999, Karishma Kapoor dominated the industry with multiple hits. In 1996 she had the All Time Blockbuster Raja Hindustani (45 crores), And majir hits like Jeet, Sajan Chale Sasural. In 97 again she had 3 major hits - Dil to Pagal Hai (34 crores), Judwaa and Hero no 1. And to top it all she had 1999, where the HGOTY was Ham Saath Saath hai with Karishma, 2nd Highest grosser was Biwi no 1 with Karishma, anf two more hits Janwar and Haseena Maan jayegi.

Kajol had a terrific 1997-1998 with multiple hits- Gupt and Ishq in 1997 both superhits, Kuch Kuch Hota hai (48 crores, HGOTY), Pyar to Hona hi tha (22 crores), Pyar Kiya to Darna Hai (18 crores) in 1998, and a Tamil film Minsara Kanavu in 1998 which wss a blockbuster and won 5 national awards.

Deepika Padukone had a terrific 2013 with hits like Race 2, Chennai Express (Industry Hit), Ye Jawani hai Deewani (Blockbuster) and Raam Leela.

What should I know about the Indian actress Soundarya?

 Sowmya Satyanarayana, better known as Soundarya, was from Kolar in Karnataka. Her father, K. S. Satyanarayana, was a film director. She was studying MBBS when she entered films, and acting soon became her career.

Soundarya — a smile that still feels familiar, even after all these years.

She became a very popular actress in Telugu and Kannada cinema and also worked in Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi. She could do a family drama in one film and then take up a completely different role in the next. That was one thing I liked about her.

In Ammoru, she played a woman who is badly treated by her in-laws. Ramya Krishnan was brilliant as the goddess, but Soundarya's character is the one you keep feeling sorry for. She made that suffering look very real.

Anthapuram was completely different. She played a mother caught in the middle of violence in Rayalaseema and spent much of the film trying to protect her child. There was a lot of fear in that character, but she never overdid it.

She acted with so many big stars too — Chiranjeevi, Venkatesh, Rajinikanth, Nagarjuna and Amitabh Bachchan. In Sooryavansham, Amitabh Bachchan played both father and son, and Soundarya played his wife.

She also produced Dweepa, a Kannada film directed by Girish Kasaravalli. She played Nagi in the film as well. It was not the kind of commercial role people normally associated with her, and the film went on to win the National Award for Best Feature Film.

I was a kid when she died in 2004, but I remember how shocking it was. She died in an aircraft crash with her brother Amarnath.

Her last released film was Apthamitra. She played Ganga/Nagavalli, and the film came out after her death. Watching her in that film now has a strange feeling to it. You know she was no longer there, yet there she is on the screen.

Soundarya's career was very short, but she managed to do a lot in those few years. Actress, producer, commercial films, serious films — she had already started doing different things when her life ended so suddenly.

Which Bollywood actors and actresses are related?

 Kareena Kapoor ,Karishma Kapoor and Ranbir K apoor are grand children of Raj Kapoor.Randhir Kapoor and Rishi Kapoor are real brothers.Raj K apoor,Shashi Kapoor and Shammi Kapoor are so ns of Prithwi Raj Kapoor.Babita Kapoor is wife of Randhir Kapoor and Neetu Kapoor is wife of Rishi Kapoor.Bollywood Actress Sadhna Shivdasani is Babita Kapoor’s sister.

Shashi Kapoor has two brothers,Shammi Kapoor and Raj Kapoor.Jennifer Kendel is wife of Shashi Kapoor.Shashi Kapoor has three children,Karan ,Kunal and Sanjana.

Salman Khan is eldest son of Screen Writer of Bo llywood ,Salim Khan.Salim Khan’s second wife H eken was a famous Dancer in old movies.Salman has two youngers,Arbaz Khan & Sohail Khan.Arb az Khan’s first wife,Malaika Arora is a Bollywood Actress.Atul Agnihotri is son -in- law of Salim Kh an .

Mahesh Bhatt & Mukesh Bhatt are siblings and both are Director,Producers.Alia Bhatt and Pooja Bhatt are daughters of Mahesh Bhatt.Pooja & Ali a are half sisters.Soni Razdan is Alia Bhatts moth er.Mohit Suri,Emran Hashmi,Dharmesh Darshan & Sunil Darshan are Nephews of Mukesh as well as Mahesh Bhatt.

Bollywood Actor Ajay Devgan is son of Stunt Mas ter,Veeru Devgan.Kajol Mukerjee is wife of Ajay D evga.

Kajol is grand daughter of Kumarsen Samarth a nd Shobhna Samarth.Kajol Mukerjee is daughter of Shomu Mukerjee,Director and Tanuja Mukerjee ,Bollywood Actress.Tanisha Mukerjee is Kajols s ister.Famous actress Nutan is her mother's sister .Rani Mukerjee and Mohnish Behl are cousins of Kajol.Amrita Singh is first wife of Saif Ali Khan.Th ey have two children ,Sarah and Ibhrahim.Kareen a is Saif’s second wife.Soha Ali Khan is Saif's sis ter and Kunal Khemu is her husband.

Saif Ali Khan is son of famous actress,Sharmila Tagore.Amrita Singh is first wife of Saif Ali Khan .They have two children,Sarah & Ibrahim.Kareena Kapoor is his second wife.Soha Ali Khan is sister of Saif Ali Khan.Kunal Khemu is Soha’s husband.

Pankaj Kapoor has two wives Neelima Azim and Supriya Pathak.Shahid Kapoor is son of Pankaj K apoor and Neelima Azim.Ishan Khattar is half br other of Shahid Kapoor.Ratna Pathak is sister of Supriya Pathak.Both of them are daughters of lat e Dina Pathak.Naseerudin Shah is husband of Ra tna Pathak.

Hrithik Roshan is son of Director Producer,Rake sh Roshan.Rajesh Roshan is brother of Rakesh Roshan.Suzanne Khan is wife of Hrithik Roshan. Suzanne is daughter of famous Actor,Director a nd Producer,Sanjay Khan & Zarine Khan.

Amitabh Bacchan is married to Jaya Bacchan.A mitabh Bacchan has a son named Abhishek Bac chan and Aishwariya Rai is his wife.Amitabh’s d aughter,Shweta is married to Nikil Nanda and ha ve two children,Agasthya & Navya Navel.Kunal Ka poor is son-in-law of Amitabh’s younger brothers daughter,Naina Bacchan.

Anil Kapoor is son of late Film Director,Surinder K apoor.He has an elder Brother Boney Kapoor and younger brother,Sanjay Kapoor.Boney Kapoor’s first wife is late Mona Shourie and Arjun Kapoor is his son.Boney Kapoor’s second wife is late Sri devi.She has two daughters Jahnvi & Khushi.Son am Kapoor is daughter of Anil Kapoor.Ranveer Singh is relative of Sonam's mother.Sonam Kapo or,Jahnvi,Khushi and Arjun are cousins of Karish ma,Kareena and Arjun.Late Raj Kapoor and Surin der Kapoor were cousins.

Sanjay Dutt is son of late Sunil Dutt and late Narg is Dutt.Sanjay Dutt’s first wife is late Richa Sharm a.Rhea Pillai was his second wife.His third wife is Mayanta Dutt.Kumar Gaurav is his brother in law.

Aamir Khan is son of Director & Producer,Zakir Hussain.Aamir Khan’s first wife is Reena Dutta, second Kiran Rao and third Gauri Sprat.Imran Kh an is Aamirs cousin sisters son.

Late Dharmendra has two wives.He has two four children from first wife Prakash Kaur.Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol are very active in Bollywood.Dre am girl,Hema Malini is his second wife and have two daughters ,Isha & Aahna.

Late Rajesh is wife of Bollywood Actress Dimple Kapadia.Twinkle Khanna is elder daughter and m arried to Super Star Akshay Kumar.

Late Super Star Vinod Khanna is father of Rahul Khanna and Akshay Khanna.

Farah Khan & Sajid Khan are Siblings.She is mar ried to Sirish Kunder.

Rani Mukerjee is cousin of Kajol & Tanisha Muke rjee.She is married to Aditya Chopra,son of late Director & Producer ,Yash Chopra.Karan Johar is cousin of Aditya Chopra.

Who are the Bollywood actors who are married producers?

 10 Bollywood actresses who married directors and producers

From Sridevi-Boney Kapoor to Kalki Koechlin-Anurag Kashyap, here i mention the list of Bollywood actresses who married the directors or producers in the industry

• It won’t be wrong to say that love knows no boundaries. From veteran actress Sridevi to Kalki Koechlin, there are Bollywood celebrities who got married to their directors. Actresses like Rani Mukerji, Udita Goswami, Bindiya Goswami and Baahubali fame Ramya Krishnan also found their love in filmmakers. Let’s take a look at 1o famous celebrity who got married to directors and producers.

1- Sridevi: Known as one of the leading ladies of Hindi film industry, Sridevi got married to her film Solva Sawan’s producer Boney Kapoor. She tied the knot in 1996. Boney was previously married to Mona Kapoor with whom he has two children, Arjun Kapoor and Anshula Kapoor. Earlier, it was reported that Sridevi was not in favour to marry Boney as he was already married but the way Boney supported Sridevi personally and professionally, the actress fell in love with him and finally got married.

2-Ramya Krishnan- Baahubali fame Ramya Krishnan married to director Krishna Vamsi. She met Krishna on sets of her film Chandralekha in 1998, love blossomed between them and the two got married in 2003. Apart from her South films, Ramya has also worked with Shah Rukh Khan in Chahat.

3- Dipti Naval- Dipti tied the knot with filmmaker Prakash Jha. The duo met on the sets of Hip Hip Hurray in 1984. Dipti was the female lead of the film.

4-Rani Mukerji- After dating Aditya Chopra for sometime, the actress got married in 2014 in Italy. Together they have a daughter Adira. Before marrying Aditya, the actress was also rumoured to be dating many Bollywood actors.

5- Kalki Koechlin- Known for her powerful performances in films like Margarita, with a Straw and Shaitan, Kalki got married to filmmaker Anurag Kashyap in 2011. The duo dated each other for more than a year before getting hitched.

6- Udita Goswami- After taking the Hindi film industry by storm with her bold roles in films including Paap and Zeher, the actress got married to director Mohit Suri. She got married to the Aashiqui 2 fame Mohit in 2013.

7- Sonali Bendre– Met on the sets of Naraaj in 1994, actress Sonali Bendre found her love in filmmaker Goldie Behl. The actress, who worked in Bahl’s Angarey got married in 2002.

8-Soni Razdan- The veteran actress got married to filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt in 1986. She also worked for Bhatt’s popular film Saaransh. Soni is Mahesh Bhatt’s second wife. Soni made her Bollywood debut in 1981 with 36 Churangi Lane. Together they have two daughters Alia Bhatt and Shaheen Bhatt.

9- Bindiya Goswami- Born on 8 August 1961, Bindiya is a former Bollywood actress. She acted in Hindi films from the late 1970s to early 1980s. Earlier married to Vinod Mehra, the actress met filmmaker JP Dutta on the sets of Sarhad in 1976. Bindiya, who got divorced with Vinod after 4 years of their marriage later married to JP Dutta in 1985.

10- Shefali Shah- Shefali made her debut with Ram Gopal Varma’s Rangeela in 1995. Shah was married to television actor Harsh Chhaya in 1997. After their divorce, she married director Vipul Amrutlal Shah. She has two sons with Shah. Shefali and Vipul came closer with each other on the sets of Dariya.

Detail collected from google….

Why didn’t Manisha Koirala become a really popular actress?

 Partly Inconsistent, Partly Bad film choices and partly unlucky

Manisha Koirala failed to give consistent hits. Every hit of her was followed by multiple flops. Her record in movies is pretty bad in terms of percentage of hits. She has worked in 64 films as a lead actress out of which only 9 were successful - Saudagar, Bombay, Agni Sakshi, Gupt, Kacche Dhaage, Company, Chhupa Rustam, Company and Ek Choti si Love Story. She was an exceptionally talented actress but she didn't even worked in proper performance oriented roles which could fetch her high critical acclaim. She could have survived longer had she done films like Bombay or Khamoshi in her later years. But rather she lapsed to B grade cinema which fastened her decline.

She was also unlucky because some of her best films failed commercially. 1942. A Love Story had everything from exceptional music to great production values and a patriotic backdrop and sensitive filmmaking but the film failed commercially. Khamoshi the Musical also had great performances and music but it also failed commercially (Manisha lost out to National awards that year because the producers failed to send the film to National awards on time). Her third underrated film Dil Se despite having SRK and outstanding music failed. Even Company did Average business. Had these films successful she would have been hailed as a great actress along with a big star.

Thirdly, one of the reasons why actresses like Madhuri Dixit or Karishma Kapoor or Sridevi were able to succeed so much was because of their successful pairing with other actors which gave them a stable career. While Madhuri Dixit was paired with Anil Kapoor, and Karishma with Govinda, Manisha Koirala couldn't establish any successful pairing with any top actor. In fact she has given flops with all the top stars be it Aamir Khan (Akele Ham Akele Tum, Manner), SRK (Guddu, Dil Se), Salman (Nischay, Sangdil Sanam, Khamoshi) etc. She was rumoured to have affairs with Nana Patekar (more than just rumours), Anil Kapoor and Jackie Shroff as well as directors like Sameer Malkan but none of that benifited her professionally

She further ruined her career in the early 2000s by doing glow budget erotic B grade films like Ek Chhoti si Love Story, Market, Paisa Vasool, Tum, Ek Second jo zindagi badal de etc. In these movies she did a lot of skin show and there were legal issues arising out of it (Manisha Koirala blamed the makers of Ek Chhoti si Love Story of using her duplicate to shoot a really inappropriate scene. She also tried to turn producer with Paisa Vasool which bombed very badly. She even tried to launch her brother Siddharth Koirala with the film Anwar (known only for its songs like Maula mere Maula mere) but that eventually ended up ending her career as lead actress. Even her otherwise decent films like Tulsi (remake of a National Award Winning film which was successful in all the languages it was made in, failed so badly that it earned only 85 thousand rupees), and I (National award winning film) failed miserably.

Lastly she missed out many good projects because of her schedules or unprofessional behaviour. Two plum projects were Dil to pagal hai and Biwi no 1. Both of those roles were done by Karishma Kapoor who reached the zenith of her career because of that. She also left Keemat after shooting for a days and was replaced by Sonali Bendre. And she left Hrishikesh Mukherjee's last film Jhooth Bole Kauwa Kaate over money. Even when she was working she was pretty unprofessional. For Sanjay Gupta’s Khauff she reported for a 7 pm shoot at 9:30 PM did her makeup etc till 11:30, shot for 2 days for a week schedule and went abroad leaving the set stranded.

Why didn’t Manisha Koirala become a really popular actress?

Manisha Koirala is a multiple award winning actress.

Popular : Manisha Koirala is among the well known actors of hindi cinema.

Her beauty and acting prowess attract many cinephiles.

Laurel : She has won five Filmfare awards in different categories.

She was also awarded by Nepalese government for her contribution to cinema.

She has also served as the Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)

Powerful : Well, she is scion of a powerful political family of Nepal.

Her four close relatives have served as the prime minister of Nepal.

Her father had also served a Union Cabinet minister in Nepal.

Private : Unlike many actors , this actress leads a private life.

Nevertheless, she is also a known trekker , a nature lover and a humanitarian.

Fact : Well, she is quite popular..

Pic Credits : Google Images / Web