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Monday, October 13, 2025
Happy birthday to Neha Dhupiaji
Happy birthday to Neha Dhupia.
The viewers of bollywood films wish happy birthday to Neha Dhupia on 27th August, 2025. Neha Dhupia, the daughter of Commander Pradip Dhupia of Indian Navy, had attracted public attention after winning the Miss India Universe 2002 crown in that year. After beginning her career in the film Qayamat: City Under Threat, she impressed the viewers with challenging role in the film Julie where her glamour was used to perfection.
But she got a notable role in the film Kya Cool Hai Hum in 2005. She acted opposite Ritesh Deshmukh where Tusshar Kapoor and Isha Koppikar were the other pair. Isha Koppikar, the police officer in the film was sent by Anupam Kher to investigate a case relating to a habitual offender. Tusshar Kapoor was suspected to be a murderer and Isha Koppikar was sent to his house to monitor his activities. Ritesh Deshmukh had an affair with Neha Dhupia and married her at the end of the film. The film was serio-comic in nature and Neha Dhupia performed very well in her respective role.
She also got a purposeful role in the film Shootout At Lokhandwala. The film was related to a real-life story where the Bombay police had trapped the underworld group in a house in Bombay and fired at them. Sanjay Dutt gave a memorable performance in the role of Encounter specialist in the film opposite Vivek Oberoi who played the role of a mafia don. Neha Dhupia did her part very well.
She did even better in the film Chup Chup Ke, in the role of the sister of Kareena Kapoor. Shahid Kapoor pretended to be dumb in the film and stayed in their house. Neha Dhupia acted as a mediator between Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor and helped in the marriage between the two. Neha Dhupia knew that Shahid Kapoor could speak but never informed Sunil Shetty or Om Puri or any other member of the house about it. Although the film was related to the serio-comic relationship between Om Puri, Paresh Rawal and Rajpal Yadav, Neha Dhupia kept her mark in a reserve role and in some of the sequences even acted better than Kareena Kapoor.
She was even impressive in her supporting role in the film Singh is Kinng, where Katrina Kaif and Akshay Kumar had the lead roles. Singh is Kinng also did good business in India and abroad.
But if her performance in the earlier films like Sheesha and new films like Mithya are compared it will be found that initially the stylish screen presence and bold performance of Neha Dhupia was publicized by the producers.
These days the acting skills of Neha Dhupia are used. She had been bold enough to act in the role of a prostitude in the film De Dana Dan in 2008. The role required comedy timing and she did extremely well.
In 2009, her performance in the film Raat Gayi Baat Gayi bagged her the nomination for Star Screen Award for the best actress in a supporting role. She had two releases in 2010 where her two films, Action Replay and With Love to Obama had different roles. Although her performances in the films were appreciated the films did not do good business. In 2012 she had acted in the film Rush where Imraan Hashmi, Sagarika Ghadke and Aditya Pancholi had played important characters. In 2013, she acted in the film Ungly with Sanjay Dutt, Imran Hashmi and others. Unless she grabs any glamourous role in near future she will not remain in the rat race where the competition between Priyanka Chopra, Katrina Kaif, Kareena Kapoor, Sonakshi Sinha is very keen.
Farooq Sheikhji and Deepti Navalji are outstanding in the film Kisi Se Na Kehna
Actors Farooq Sheikh and Deepti Naval were a brilliant intellectual pair who stormed Bollywood films in the 1980s. They were cast in different experimental characters after the pair of Naseeruddin Smita Patil and Om Puri Shabana Azmi.
Kisi Se Na Kehna was a light-hearted comedy film made by Hrishikesh Mukherjee in 1983. The film was produced by Ashok Raut or Jayant Pathare. The music was composed by Bappi Lahiri.
In the film Farooq Sheikh became the general manager of the firm run by SN Banerjee. He fell in love with Deepti Naval who was the niece of SN Banerjee. Utpal Dutta, the father of Farooq Sheikh wanted to get him married to girl who knew Indian traditions and did not know the language.
Utpal Dutta himself went to see a number of girls and found that the ones who were modern learned poor culture and were disrespectful towards elders. He asked Farooq Sheikh to marry only that girl who knew not a single letter of English.
Sayeed Jaffery helped Farooq Sheikh and Deepti Naval to get married. He asked Deepti Naval and SN Banerjee to pretend that they were from the village and never heard any English word in life. Deepti Naval faced huge trouble as she was a learned doctor, but she managed the false relationship.
Deven Verma, her cousin brother was the relief character in the film who was seen with different girlfriends at different times. At the end of the film when Utpal Dutta faced a heart attack, Deepti Naval had to give an injection to save him and told the truth. At the beginning Utpal Dutta told her to leave his house but after hearing the version from Sayeed Jaffery reconciled the situation.
Hrishikesh Mukherjee gave a great message in the film. He showed the world that development is not based on roughness created by advanced education but the humbleness earned by traditional knowledge. Farooq Sheikh and Deepti Naval after creating havoc with brilliant performances in the films Saath Saath, Katha, Chasme Badoor, continued the dream run in the film Kisi Se Na Kehna.
Utpal Dutta had a class of his own when it came to acting. Right from negative roles in the films Barsaat Ki Ek Raat to comedy roles in Golmaal and social roles in Kisi Se Na Kehna, he became the pride of the industry in character roles. Sayeed Jaffery was a great actor and showed his class in films like Shatranj Ki Khiladi, Masoom and many other films. The music of Bappi Lahiri was impressive with Asha Bhosle’s song “kisi se na kehna” which was very soft and melodious. The film should be restored and preserved.
On Shabana Azmiji birthday her landmark performances are remembered
Happy birthday to Shabana Azmi.
Versatile actress Shabana Azmi was remembered on her birthday on 18th September, 2025. Many actresses spoke about her. Nandita Das had said that she had started her career with Fire opposite Shabana Azmi. She had great experience of working with the great actress. She acted with Shabana Azmi in a play named Diary of Anne Frank which was hosted in Kolkata, Bangalore and New Delhi. Director Mahesh Bhatt also said that his career also took a turn after Shabana Azmi acted in his film Arth.
Shabana Azmi gave an interview in Times of India on her birthday in 18th September, 2010, four years back. She commented on many things. She said that in theatre acting there is scope of underacting, as the viewers at the backseat may not recognize lack of expression, but in films that is not possible. For her film acting was a greater challenge.
She also said that acted in both commercial and parallel films. She acted during the transition of the 70s, when the actresses got roles opposite the angry young man played by Big B, Vinod Khanna, Shatrughun Sinha and others. Female actresses started getting roles which were transformations from the ones of the 60s in films like Mai Choop Rahungi to films in the 80s like Khoon Bhari Maang. But her range was exposed in parallel cinema. She could express the complexity of female mind successfully in the art films directed by Shyam Benegal, Satyajit Ray and others.
When asked about her choice, she said that she would have accepted the role of a sweeper if director Bergman had offered her a role. He was her favourite director. In respect of actors, she commented that Tragedy King Dilip Kumar was her favourite actor. She grew up seeing his acting.
It is very significant that the actress of the callibre of Shabana Azmi who had won 5 national awards also used the name of Tragedy King, who had not learned acting from acting school, but the characters immortal with his sensitive performances over 70 years. The interview was very knowledgeable.
Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil were the two leading actresses with whom the renowned directors of India including Satyajit Ray, Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihalini, and others experimented the most in the late 70s and early 80s. Some of the best films of Shabana Azmi include Khandahar, Paar, Masoom, Sati, Aarth, Mandi, etc. In Shyam Benegal’s Ankur she played the role of the wife of Sadhu Meher, a rural villager. The film showed oppression of the feudal lords in Indian villages. In Shekhar Kapoor’s Masoom she played the role of the husband of Naseeruddin Shah. She had her two daughters and had to reconcile the son of Naseeruddin Shah who was born out of the first wedlock in the film. In Mahesh Bhatt’s film Arth she played the role of the wife of Kulbhushan Kharwanda who was having extra-marital affair with another woman played by Smita Patil. She had played very diverse roles and did justice to the complicated characters of women over the last 35 years.
Shabana Azmi should continue her great work in bollywood films in future.
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