Dimple Kapadia

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Dimple Kapadia
Dimple Kapadia is looking directly into the camera
Kapadia in 2018
Born (1957-06-08) 8 June 1957 (age 68)
Bombay, Bombay State, India
OccupationActress
Years active1973; 1984–present
Works
Full list
Spouse(s)Rajesh Khanna (m. 1973; sep. 1982; d. 2012)
Children
Relatives

Dimple Kapadia (born 8 June 1957) is an Indian actress who predominantly appears in Hindi films. Born and raised in Bombay by wealthy parents, she aspired to become an actress from a young age and received her first opportunity through her father's efforts to launch her in the film industry. She was discovered at age 14 by the filmmaker Raj Kapoor, who cast her in the title role of his teen romance Bobby (1973), which opened to major commercial success and gained her wide public recognition. Shortly before the film's release in 1973, she married the actor Rajesh Khanna and quit acting. Kapadia returned to films in 1984, two years after her separation from Khanna. Her comeback film Saagar, which was released a year later, revived her career. Both Bobby and Saagar won her Filmfare Awards for Best Actress. Through her work over the decade, she established herself as one of Hindi cinema's leading female actors.[1]

While her initial roles often relied on her perceived beauty and sex appeal, Kapadia was keen to challenge herself and expand her range. She was among the first actresses who starred in women-centred Hindi action films but found greater favour with critics when she took on more dramatic roles in both mainstream and neorealist parallel cinema. Appearing in films ranging from marital dramas to literary adaptations, she played troubled women sometimes deemed reflective of her personal experience, and received acclaim for her performances in Kaash (1987), Drishti (1990), Lekin... (1991), and Rudaali (1993).[2] For her role as a professional mourner in Rudaali, she won the National Film Award for Best Actress and a Filmfare Critics Award. Kapadia followed with character roles in Gardish (1993) and Krantiveer (1994), the latter securing her a fourth Filmfare Award.

Starting in the mid 1990s, Kapadia became more selective about her work, and her screen appearances in the following decades were fewer. She was noted for her portrayal of middle-aged, complicated women courted by younger men in Dil Chahta Hai (2001) and the American production Leela (2002). Her later credits include leading roles in Hum Kaun Hai? (2004), Pyaar Mein Twist (2005), Phir Kabhi (2008), Tum Milo Toh Sahi (2010) and What the Fish (2013), but she attained more success with character roles in Being Cyrus (2006), Luck by Chance (2009), Dabangg (2010), Cocktail (2012) and Finding Fanny (2014). Some of these roles were cited in the media as a departure from the regular portrayals of women her age in Hindi films. A role in the Hollywood thriller Tenet (2020) brought her further recognition. Kapadia is the mother of Twinkle Khanna and Rinke Khanna, both of whom are former actresses.

Background and personal life

Kapadia and her daughter and son-in-law looking at the camera
Kapadia (right) with her daughter Twinkle Khanna and her son-in-law Akshay Kumar

Dimple Kapadia was born on 8 June 1957 in Bombay to Gujarati businessman Chunibhai Kapadia and his wife Bitti, who was known as "Betty".[3][4][5] Chunibhai was from a wealthy Ismaili Khoja family, whose members had "embraced Hinduism" while still regarding Aga Khan as their religious mentor.[lower-alpha 1] Bitti was a practising Ismaili.[9][10] As an infant, Dimple was given the name Ameena (literally, "honest" or "trustworthy" in Arabic) by Aga Khan III, by which she was never referred to.[6][11] She is the eldest of four children; her siblings—all of whom have died—were sisters Simple (also an actress) and Reem, and a brother, Suhail.[11][12][13]

The family resided in the Bombay suburb Santacruz, where Kapadia studied at St Joseph's Convent High School.[11][14] She described herself as having matured quickly, and often made friends with children older than herself.[11][15] Her father was disowned by his conservative family after she was cast for her first film Bobby in 1971.[16][6] At age 15, she married the actor Rajesh Khanna, then aged 30, after a short courtship.[6][17] Having been a fan of Khanna, she later said the marriage was the "biggest high" of her life during this period.[18] The wedding was performed according to Arya Samaj rites on 27 March 1973 in her father's bungalow in Juhu, six months before the release of Bobby.[19][20] At her husband's behest, Kapadia quit acting following the marriage.[21] She gave birth to two daughters, Twinkle (born 1974) and Rinke (born 1977).[22]

Kapadia separated from Khanna in April 1982 and returned with her two daughters to her parents' house.[6][17] She returned to acting two years later.[17] In a 1985 interview with India Today, she remarked, "The life and happiness in our house came to an end the day I and Rajesh got married", saying her unhappy marital experience had included inequality and her husband's infidelity, and called their marriage "a farce".[6] The hostility between Khanna and Kapadia, who were never officially divorced, subsided over the years; despite not having ever reunited, they were seen together at parties; Kapadia acted opposite Khanna in his unreleased film Jai Shiv Shankar in 1990 and campaigned for his election to the Indian National Congress a year later.[23][24] Her daughters similarly became actresses and retired after settling down.[13] Her elder daughter Twinkle is married to the actor Akshay Kumar. Asked in Filmfare in 2000 whether she would want to remarry, Kapadia said: "I'm very happy and content ... once was more than enough". Khanna fell ill in early 2012, and Kapadia stayed by his side and took care of him until his death on 18 July that year.[25][26] She was with him when he died and said his loss, along with the deaths of her sister Simple and her brother, left her feeling "truly abandoned".[13][27]

Kapadia is an art lover and has experimented with painting and sculpture. In 1998, she started a new company called The Faraway Tree, which sells candles that she designs.[28][29] Having been a candle enthusiast and finding candle-making therapeutic, she went to Wales and took a workshop with Blackwood-based candle artist David Constable.[14][30] According to the Indian press, Kapadia's business venture has inspired other candle enthusiasts to start similar businesses.[31][32] Her candles were presented and offered for sale at a number of exhibitions.[29][33]

Career

See also: Dimple Kapadia filmography

Public image and artistry

When Kapadia returned to films after her separation from Khanna, she faced constant comparison to her Bobby days and struggled to be taken seriously as an actor. According to Jyotika Virdi, the author of the book The Cinematic Imagination, while Kapadia's trajectory is different from those of other female Hindi film stars, she turned her disadvantages to her advantage.[34] Virdi said Kapadia's forthright manner made a major contribution to her career: "Speaking candidly to the press, she and the reporters plotted her life's narrative from the innocent teenager snared into an impossible marriage to the emergence of a mature 'woman with experience.' "[34] Kapadia is known for her assertive and moody nature;[35][36] during the making of Janbaaz (1986), the director Feroz Khan said he had never met a woman with her levels of "pent-up aggression".[6] The journalist Bhawana Somaaya, who conducted a series of interviews with Kapadia during the 1980s, stated: "She's a strange bundle of contradictions. Her moods change in a jiffy."[37] According to some critics, this approach has sometimes been at the cost of professional opportunities as "her unpredictable nature and moods have distanced many well wishers". In reply to this, she said: "I am moody by nature. But I have never consciously hurt anyone."

Kapadia at an event
Kapadia at the Sansui Television Awards in 2008

Virdi wrote Kapadia fought her way to success by committing to serious and challenging work and described her parts in Aitbaar (1985), Kaash (1987) and Drishti (1990) as characters with which she "drew from the well of her own experience".[34] With Zakhmi Aurat (1988), Kapadia became one of the mainstream actresses associated with a new wave of women-centred revenge films.[38] As an action heroine, she chose to perform her own stunts, which the critic M. Rahman thought made her performance more convincing. Although she enjoyed working in similar projects, such as Mera Shikar (1988) and Kali Ganga (1990), she bemoaned about being paid less than male action stars.[38] The author Dinesh Raheja believed Kapadia's involvement in art films in the 1990s happened at a time when she was no longer willing to play the "pretty prop in hero-oriented films", arguing her new choices "honed Dimple's talent for lending fine striations to complex emotions".[20] Mahesh Bhatt commended her for not turning into "a victim of her own success" by refusing to appear in films of strictly commercial value. According to Govind Nihalani, the director of Drishti (1990), Kapadia has a genuine interest in serious work that would challenge her talent and realise her potential. Similar sentiments were shared by Shashi Kapoor, who said Kapdia had always been eager to act in quality films. Kapadia said her involvement in independent films was a conscious decision to experiment in different cinema and prove her abilities.

When questioned about her hiatus after Rudaali at her career peak, Kapadia said she needed space and that generally her "career has always been secondary" to her. Her infrequent work since then, which manifested in numerous gaps between her screen appearances, has gained her a reputation for being selective about her work.[39][40] She attributed this to the lack of worthy offers and the "huge effort" expended in film acting, which consumes time otherwise spent on her family and private life.[41][42] Even so, Kapadia's later work was noted by the scholar Afreen Khan, who listed her among the female actors who represent a changing portrayal of mothers in Hindi films, with roles of women who consider their happiness to be of equal importance to that of their children. Similar thoughts were expressed by Mumbai Mirror's Trisha Gupta, who was impressed with Kapadia's diverse repertoire of maternal roles, ranging from Luck by Chance (2009) and Dabangg (2010) to Finding Fanny (2014).[43] Guided by her own judgement, Kapadia normally commits to a project without seeking advice and often willingly works with young or first-time directors, finding their enthusiasm and creativity beneficial to both the film and her performance.[39][44]

Kapadia's screen image has been characterised in terms of her perceived beauty and sex appeal. The Times of India wrote in reference to her role in Saagar, "Dimple was a vision of lush beauty; quite the forbidden fruit, rising from the ocean like Aphrodite emerging from the waves and surf". Speaking of her post-comeback screen persona, the critic Khalid Mohamed observed, "Her arsenal comprised, among other elements, expressive cognac eyes, a nuanced, resonating voice skilled in Hindustani dialogue delivery, easy body language, and that seductive toss of her auburn hair."[45] Mrinal Sen, who directed her in Antareen (1993), compared Kapadia to Sophia Loren and described her face as "a landscape of desolation". Anil Kapoor, her co-star of Janbaaz, hailed Kapadia as the most beautiful Indian actress since Madhubala.[6] According to Dinesh Raheja, Kapadia's casting in Dil Chahta Hai (2001) and Leela (2002), in which she played middle-aged women who are the object of younger men's desire, served as "a kind of tribute to her eternal beauty".[20]

Critics have been appreciative of Kapadia's acting prowess and some have analysed it in relation to her appearance.[46][47] Ranjan Das Gupta called her "an instinctive actress, spontaneous and intelligent" who is best at playing "intense characters", and said her beauty is "her asset as well as limitation".[48] In 1988, Subhash K. Jha wrote that "besides her elastic and primeval looks", Kapadia "possesses an inbuilt instinct for grasping characters at a level way beyond the surface". While working with her on Kaash (1987), Mahesh Bhatt said Kapadia had been through so much in her private life she need not study method acting to play real women.[6] Academic writers Madhu Kishwar and Ruth Vanita of the feminist magazine Manushi noted Kapadia for being unafraid to look less attractive for the benefit of convincingly expressing anguish and emotion. M.L. Dhawan from The Tribune commented, "All those who have been following Dimple Kapadia's career from Bobby, Lekin and Rudaali will assert that she is more talented than glamorous".[49] Kapadia has described herself as a "spontaneous actor who is guided by instinct" and on another occasion, "a competent actress yet to deliver her best".

Awards and nominations

Table containing awards and nominations received by Dimple Kapadia
Year Award Category Film Result Ref.
1973 21st Filmfare Awards Best Actress Bobby Won [50]
1985 33rd Filmfare Awards Best Actress Saagar Won [51]
1991 37th Filmfare Awards Best Actress Lekin... Nominated [52]
1992 55th Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards Best Actress (Hindi) Drishti Won
1993 39th Filmfare Awards Best Supporting Actress Gardish Nominated [53]
1993 39th Filmfare Awards Best Actress – Critics Rudaali Won [54]
1993 39th Filmfare Awards Best Actress Nominated [53]
1993 40th National Film Awards Best Actress Won
1993 8th Damascus International Film Festival Best Actress Won
1993 38th Asia-Pacific Film Festival Best Actress Won [55]
1994 40th Filmfare Awards Best Supporting Actress Krantiveer Won
2009 55th Filmfare Awards Best Supporting Actress Luck by Chance Nominated [56]
2014 60th Filmfare Awards Best Supporting Actress Finding Fanny Nominated [57]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ This was originally reported by Sumit Mitra in India Today on 20 November 1985, describing Kapadia's family as a "wealthy Khoja family, which embraced Hinduism only with Chunibhai's father, Laljibhai, and which accepts the Agha Khan as its religious mentor even now".[6] Similar information was repeated by Kaveree Bamzai in Open magazine on 4 October 2019 in a piece about Kapadia's daughter Twinkle Khanna, claiming Chunibhai's family to be of "lapsed Ismaili Khojas".[7] In the 2014 book When I Was 25: The Leaders Look Back, the author Shaili Chopra, who interviewed Kapadia for a chapter in this book, quoted the aforementioned article by India Today in relation to her parents' story and noted that Kapadia "wouldn't talk about it much".[8]

References

  1. ↑ Bumiller 1991, p. 185.
  2. ↑ Miglani, Surendra (5 October 2003). "Parallel cinema". The Tribune. Spectrum. Archived from the original on 27 June 2011. Retrieved 19 September 2011. with movies like Kaash, Drishti, Lekin, Rudaali and Leela, she (Dimple) showed that off-beat films too are her forte.
  3. ↑ Reuben 1995, p. 198; 202.
  4. ↑ ET Online (1 December 2019). "Dimple Kapadia's mother Betty passes away at 80". The Economic Times. The Times Group. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  5. ↑ S. Pradhan, Bharati (22 November 2009). "The end of the sister act". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 20 June 2020. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 6.8 Mitra, Sumit (30 November 1985). "Dimple Kapadia: The second coming". India Today. Vol. 10, no. 17–24. Bangalore: Living Media. p. 74. Archived from the original on 26 December 2016. Retrieved 25 December 2016.
  7. ↑ Bamzai, Kaveree (4 October 2019). "Twinkle Khanna: The Tina Factor". Open. Archived from the original on 4 June 2020. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  8. ↑ Chopra 2014b.
  9. ↑ Halim, Moeena (19 December 2016). "Twinkle 'Funnybones' Khanna: The author who puts a bit of herself in her characters". India Today. Living Media. Archived from the original on 4 June 2020. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  10. ↑ Kulkarni, Ronjita (14 November 2016). "Akshay has been my biggest cheerleader". Rediff.com. Archived from the original on 4 June 2020. Retrieved 4 June 2020. My grandmother is an Aga Khani (the Islami sect which revers the Aga Khan as its spiritual head) so she would take Rinke and me to the jamatkhana.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 Mirani, Indu (22 August 2006). "Once upon a time". Daily News and Analysis. Archived from the original on 7 July 2012. Retrieved 1 January 2012.
  12. ↑ "The brave and the beautiful". Mid Day. 18 November 2016. Archived from the original on 9 June 2020. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Sahgal, Geety (14 December 2013). "Screen Exclusive: Dimple Kapadia gets candid about films, family". The Indian Express. Indian Express Limited. Archived from the original on 12 October 2020. Retrieved 31 May 2020.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Bamzai, Kaveree (18 November 2002). "Forever Diva". India Today. Living Media. Archived from the original on 4 June 2020. Retrieved 1 January 2012.
  15. ↑ Chowdhury, Alpana (9 August 1987). "Reflections in a Golden Eye". The Illustrated Weekly of India. The Times Group. pp. 6–9.
  16. ↑ Reuben 1995, p. 204.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 Virdi 2003, p. 141.
  18. ↑ Mehul S., Thakkar (26 September 2014). "The biggest high for me was to marry Rajesh Khanna: Dimple Kapadia". Deccan Chronicle. Archived from the original on 4 October 2016. Retrieved 7 September 2016.
  19. ↑ Bharatan, Raju (8 April 1973). "Motion Picture Event of the Year". The Illustrated Weekly of India. The Times Group. p. 47. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 Raheja, Dinesh (8 September 2004). "Dimple: A Most Unusual Woman". Rediff.com. Archived from the original on 7 November 2011. Retrieved 19 September 2011.
  21. ↑ Bumiller 1991, p. 186.
  22. ↑ Usman 2014, p. 192.
  23. ↑ Usman 2014, p. 153.
  24. ↑ Sinha, Seema (13 September 2010). "Rajesh-Dimple: Complicated!". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 14 September 2010. Retrieved 6 December 2011.
  25. ↑ "Bollywood's Rajesh Khanna 'not ill', waves at fans". BBC News. BBC. 21 June 2012. Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  26. ↑ George, Nirmala (18 July 2012). "Bollywood superstar Rajesh Khanna dies". New York Daily News. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
  27. ↑ "Dimple Kapadia, Rajesh Khanna: Love unfinished!". The Times of India. 20 July 2012. Archived from the original on 25 February 2015. Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  28. ↑ M. M. Vetticad, Anna (12 October 1998). "Kapadia's candles". India Today. Living Media. Archived from the original on 21 June 2020. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 Pratap Shah, Monisha (11 November 2001). "Candle in the wind". The Times of India. The Times Group. Archived from the original on 17 August 2020. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
  30. ↑ "Candlemaker David Constable on his work by royal appointment". BBC. 11 July 2013. Archived from the original on 12 October 2020. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
  31. ↑ Thapar Kapoor, Reena (9 October 2006). "The house of wax". Mumbai Mirror. The Times Group. Archived from the original on 3 July 2020. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
  32. ↑ Sangghvi, Malavika (15 April 2013). "Candles in the wind?". Mid Day. Archived from the original on 4 July 2020. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
  33. ↑ "Dimple's candles to light animals' cause". The Tribune. Tribune News Service. 20 July 2000. Archived from the original on 21 April 2017. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
  34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 34.2 Virdi 2003, p. 142.
  35. ↑ Dé 1998, pp. 174–175.
  36. ↑ Rajendra, M. (6 April 1986). "Tinsel Town". The Telegraph. ABP Group. p. 11. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  37. ↑ Somaaya, Bhawana (27 February 2004). "Dimple Kapadia – 1989". Screen. Archived from the original on 23 August 2004. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  38. ↑ 38.0 38.1 Rahman, M. (15 July 1988). "Women strike back". India Today. Living Media. Archived from the original on 30 November 2020. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  39. ↑ 39.0 39.1 Chopra 2014a.
  40. ↑ Ramnath, Nandini (4 December 2013). "Interview Dimple Kapadia on her career and fishbowl life". Mint. HT Media. Archived from the original on 6 December 2013. Retrieved 31 May 2020.
  41. ↑ Sahani, Alaka (6 December 2013). "Dimple Kapadia: Forty years on, I am still living off 'Bobby'". The Indian Express. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
  42. ↑ Jha, Subhash K. (9 June 2016). "A book on my life? No way: Dimple Kapadia". Deccan Chronicle. Archived from the original on 15 June 2020. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  43. ↑ Gupta, Trisha (18 April 2016). "Mining the mother lode". Mumbai Mirror. Archived from the original on 20 April 2021. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
  44. ↑ K. Jha, Subhash (24 March 2006). "Sometimes I need to do insignificant roles for the bank balance". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 20 June 2020. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
  45. ↑ Mohamed, Khalid (8 June 2017). "Being in Conversation With Mrs Gorgeousbones, Dimple Kapadia". The Quint. Archived from the original on 20 June 2020. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
  46. ↑ "Dimple". Asiaweek. Vol. 19, no. 27–51. Asiaweek Ltd. 1993. Long a critic's darling, the popular actress has won two major awards so far this year for her role in Rudaali.
  47. ↑ "Beauty which takes your breath away". Screen. Indian Express Limited. 28 September 1990. Accompanied by a sharp intellect and insight. Yes, Dimple Kapadia is a rare combination of stunning looks and impressive prowess and range. It is this malleability which enables her to walk hand in hand with art and commercial ventures with equal panache.
  48. ↑ Das Gupta, Ranjan (7 February 2011). "Evolved perfection". Deccan Herald. Archived from the original on 21 August 2014. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
  49. ↑ Dhawan, M.L. (9 December 2007). "Queens of hearts". The Tribune. Archived from the original on 24 October 2012. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
  50. ↑ Reuben 1995, p. 393.
  51. ↑ "The Winners – 1986". Filmfare. Archived from the original on 12 January 2006. Retrieved 26 April 2020.
  52. ↑ "The Nominations – 1991". Filmfare. Archived from the original on 4 July 2007. Retrieved 26 April 2020.
  53. ↑ 53.0 53.1 "The Nominations – 1993". Filmfare. Archived from the original on 20 May 2007. Retrieved 26 April 2020.
  54. ↑ "The Winners – 1993". Filmfare. Archived from the original on 12 January 2006. Retrieved 26 April 2020.
  55. ↑ Kumar 2002, p. 172: "Bhupen Hazarika adjudged the best music director and Dimple Kapadia the best actress for 'Rudali' (Hindi) at Asia-Pacific International Film Festival Fukoaka, Japan"
  56. ↑ "55th Idea Filmfare Awards Nominations". Filmfare. 11 February 2010. Archived from the original on 13 February 2010. Retrieved 26 April 2020.
  57. ↑ "Nominations for the 60th Britannia Filmfare Awards". Filmfare. 19 January 2015. Archived from the original on 10 January 2016. Retrieved 26 April 2020.

Bibliography

External links

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