Usha Jadhav is an Indian actress who predominantly works in

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

and

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

language films. She is best known for her role in the 2012

Marathi film Marathi cinema is an Indian film industry of Marathi-language motion pictures. It is based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Based in old Mumbai, it is the oldest film industry of Indian cinema. The first Marathi film to be released in India was '' S ...

Dhag ''Dhag'' ( mr, धग, meaning ''Blaze'') is an Indian Marathi film directed by Shivaji Lotan Patil. The story of the film is of a young boy wanting to break the successions of traditional jobs in his low caste family. The film was released on 7 ...

'' for which she won

National Film Award for Best Actress The National Film Award for Best Actress (officially known as the Rajat Kamal Award for the Best Actress) is an honour presented annually at the National Film Awards of India since 1968 to an actress for the best performance in a leading role wi ...

at the

60th National Film Awards The 60th National Film Awards ceremony was an event during which the Directorate of Film Festivals presented its annual National Film Awards to honour the best films of 2012 in the Indian cinema. The ceremony was held on 3 May 2013 and was hos ...

. In 2019, she received the IFFI Best Actor Award (Female) at the 50th International Film Festival of India for her work in ''Mai Ghat : Crime No 103/2015''.

Career

Born and brought up in

Kolhapur Kolhapur () is a city on the banks of the Panchganga River in the southern part of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the administrative headquarter of the Kolhapur district. In, around 2 C.E. Kolapur's name was 'Kuntal'. Kolhapur is ...

, Maharashtra, Jadhav moved to

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, ( the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million As of 2021, Pune Metropolitan Region is the largest i ...

for her job in a travel agency. Following her passion for art, she moved to

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

in search of various roles while still continuing her job. Her journey from a lower-middle-class Kaikadi Nomadic Tribe (backward class) in Kolhapur to the big screen in Mumbai and in world cinema has been one of sheer grit and determination. Jadhav got various opportunities in commercial advertisements like that for

Tata DoCoMo Tata Docomo was an Indian mobile network operator, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Teleservices. In October 2017, Bharti Airtel announced a merger deal with Tata Teleservices and the acquisition of Tata Docomo. As of 21 July 2019, all Tata ...

Fevicol Fevicol is an Indian brand of adhesives owned by the Indian company Pidilite Industries Limited. History First marketed in India in 1959, the brand was launched as an easy-to-use glue for carpenters. It was a replacement for collagen and fa ...

Head & Shoulders Head & Shoulders (H&S) is an American brand of anti-dandruff and non-dandruff shampoo produced by parent company Procter & Gamble. It was introduced in the United States on 1 January 1961 based in Manhattan and used the slogan THE AMERICA AND WORL ...

ICICI Bank ICICI Bank Limited is an Indian Private bank. It is headquartered at Mumbai. It offers a wide range of banking products and financial services for corporate and retail customers through a variety of delivery channels and specialized subsidiari ...

and more. Her first break in films came with the 2007 Hindi film ''

Traffic Signal Traffic lights, traffic signals, or stoplights – known also as robots in South Africa are signalling devices positioned at road intersections, pedestrian crossings, and other locations in order to control flows of traffic. Traffic lights ...

'', directed by

Madhur Bhandarkar Madhur Bhandarkar (born 26 August 1968) is an Indian film director, script writer, and producer. In 2016,Bhandarkar was honoured with the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian honour, by the Government of India. The drama film '' Chandni B ...

, where she was cast in a small role of a girl selling goods at the

traffic signal Traffic lights, traffic signals, or stoplights – known also as robots in South Africa are signalling devices positioned at road intersections, pedestrian crossings, and other locations in order to control flows of traffic. Traffic lights ...

. She also played another small role in the 2009 film ''

Do Paise Ki Dhoop, Chaar Aane Ki Baarish ''Do Paise Ki Dhoop, Chaar Aane Ki Baarish'' is an Indian film written, and directed by Deepti Naval, starring Manisha Koirala, Rajit Kapur and Sanaj Naval. Cast *Manisha Koirala as Juhi * Rajit Kapur as Debu *Sanaj Naval as Kaku *Milind Soman ...

'', which was the directorial debut of film actress

Deepti Naval Deepti Naval (born 3 February 1952) is an Indian-born American actress, director, and writer, predominantly active in Hindi cinema. Her major contribution has been in the area of art cinema, winning critical acclaim for her sensitive and 'clos ...

starring

Manisha Koirala Manisha Koirala (; born 16 August 1970) is a Nepalese actress who works in Indian films, predominantly in Hindi and Tamil films and has also worked in few Telugu, Bengali, Malayalam, Nepali and English films. Known for her work in both commerci ...

and

Rajit Kapur Rajit Kapur is an Indian film and theatre actor and director. He is known for his portrayal of Mahatma Gandhi in the 1996 film, '' The Making of the Mahatma'' for which he won the National Film Award for Best Actor. Other notable roles are as ...

in lead roles. In 2012, Jadhav was seen alongside Amitabh Bachchan in the advertisements of the 6th season of

Kaun Banega Crorepati ''Kaun Banega Crorepati'' (also simply known as ''KBC'') is an Indian Hindi-language television game show. It is the official Hindi adaptation of the ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'' franchise. It has been presented by actor Amitabh Bachchan ...

. She also played the lead role in one episode of the television show '' Lakhon Mein Ek'' that aired on Star Plus. The show narrated inspirational fictional stories of common people who brought change in the society. Guest-directed by

Anant Mahadevan Anant Mahadevan (born 28 August 1950), also credited as Ananth Narayan Mahadevan, is an Indian screenwriter, actor, and film director of Malayalam, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil films and television shows. Having been an integral part of the Indi ...

, the episode featured Jadhav as a young bride who is discriminated for her dark complexion by her in-laws. Later the same year, her film ''

'' was released, where Jadhav played the lead role of Yashoda. Mother of a teenager, Yashoda wishes that her son should get a good education and not fall into the traditional job of her family, of running the local

crematorium A crematorium or crematory is a venue for the cremation of the dead. Modern crematoria contain at least one cremator (also known as a crematory, retort or cremation chamber), a purpose-built furnace. In some countries a crematorium can also b ...

. This role of a poor mother fighting the social norms laid on them for their lower caste status got Jadhav various appreciations. The film featured in many film festivals and she was compared with the actress Smita Patil for her acting. Jadhav said that she admired Patil, but refused to admit that she had emulated her. She won the

for this role. Usha Jadhav considers

Babasaheb Ambedkar Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (14 April 1891 – 6 December 1956) was an Indian jurist, economist, social reformer and political leader who headed the committee drafting the Constitution of India from the Constituent Assembly debates, served a ...

as her inspiration. "We all know that Babasaheb wrote the constitution of our country. But the work done by Babasaheb for women at that time when women were considered secondary is very important and for me, it is very inspiring. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar has given women various legal rights as well as equal rights through the Constitution. He also raised his voice against various atrocities against women. The message of equality he has given to the world, I follow it and we should all follow it. That's why Babasaheb is my role model" said Usha Jadhav.

Filmography

Awards

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jadhav, Usha Living people Actresses in Marathi cinema 21st-century Indian actresses Indian television actresses Best Actress National Film Award winners IFFI Best Actor (Female) winners People from Kolhapur Actresses in Hindi cinema Year of birth missing (living people) Indian expatriates in Spain