Dimple Kapadia

Dimple Kapadia (born 8 June 1957) is an Indian actress predominantly appearing in Hindi films. Born and raised in Mumbai 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. Their daughters, Twinkle and Rinke Khanna, both briefly worked as actresses in their youth. 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 next decade, she established herself as one of Hindi cinema's leading actresses.

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). For her role as a professional mourner in ''Rudaali'', she won the National Film Award for Best Actress and a Filmfare Critics Award. She also had supporting roles in the crime dramas '' Prahaar'' (1991), '' Angaar'' (1992), '' Gardish'' (1993) and ''Krantiveer'' (1994), the latter securing her another 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 of her age in Hindi films. Roles in the Hollywood thriller '' Tenet'' (2020), action film '' Pathaan'' (2023), as well as the streaming series '' Saas, Bahu Aur Flamingo'' (2023), brought her further recognition.

Background and personal life

Dimple Kapadia was born on 8 June 1957 in Bombay to Gujarati businessman Chunibhai Kapadia and his wife Bitti, who was known as "Betty". Chunibhai was from a wealthy Ismaili Khoja family, whose members had "embraced Hinduism" while still regarding Aga Khan as their religious mentor. Bitti was a practising Ismaili. 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. 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.

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

Kapadia separated from Khanna in April 1982 and returned with her two daughters to her parents' house. She returned to acting two years later. 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". 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. Their daughters similarly became actresses and, after marriage, retired from acting. The 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. 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".

Kapadia is an art lover and has experimented with painting and sculpture. In 1998, she started a company called The Faraway Tree, which sells candles that she designs. 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. According to the Indian press, Kapadia's business venture has inspired other candle enthusiasts to start similar businesses. Her candles were presented and offered for sale at a number of exhibitions.

Career

Debut and stardom (1973)

Kapadia, who was an avid movie viewer, aspired to be an actor since childhood. Her acting career was initiated by her father, who socialised with film-industry professionals and frequented parties hosted by screenwriter Anjana Rawail. Through his contacts, Dimple was almost cast to play the younger version of Vyjayanthimala's character in H. S. Rawail's ''Sunghursh'' (1968), but was eventually rejected because she looked older than the part called for. After she turned down an offer to play the protagonist in Hrishikesh Mukherjee's '' Guddi'' in 1970, another opportunity arose in 1971 when Raj Kapoor was looking for a young, new female lead for his planned teen romance. Munni Dhawan, a close friend of Kapoor, suggested he consider Kapadia, having been acquainted with her father. In June that year, at the age of 14, Kapadia performed a screen test for the film on the sets of one of Kapoor's productions. Impressed with her spontaneity and improvisation, Kapoor cast her in the part. The film, which was named ''Bobby'', was released in September 1973. It starred Kapoor's son Rishi Kapoor as Raj Nath, the son of a wealthy Hindu businessman, and Kapadia was given the title role of Bobby Braganza, the teenage daughter of a Christian fisherman from Goa. The story follows the love affair between Raj and Bobby in the face of his parents' disapproval of their relationship due to class prejudice.

''Bobby'' was a major commercial success— India's highest-grossing film of the year and ultimately second-earning film of the decade—and Kapadia was lauded for her performance, which won her the Filmfare Award for Best Actress (tied with Jaya Bhaduri for ). Qurratulain Hyder of ''The Illustrated Weekly of India'' noted she acted with "natural ease and freshness". Several of Kapadia's lines in the film became popular, particularly, "Mujhse dosti karoge?" ("Will you be my friend?"), and the "miniskirts, midriff-baring polka dot shirts, and fabled red bikini" she wore made her a youth fashion icon in India. Consequently, polka-dotted dresses were often referred to as "Bobby Print". Bhawana Somaaya of ''The Hindu'' credits Kapadia with starting the merchandising of film memorabilia in India, and Mukesh Khosla of '' The Tribune'' said ''Bobby'' established her as a "cult figure" because she led the fashion trends. In later years, Kapadia credited Raj Kapoor for her development as an actor: "The sum total of me today as an actress, whatever I am, is Raj Kapoor". In 2008, Raja Sen from the web portal Rediff.com ranked her performance in ''Bobby'' as the fourth-best female debut of all time in Hindi cinema: "An elfin little girl with big, lovely eyes, nobody quite portrayed innocence as memorably as Dimple in her first outing. She was candid, striking, and a true natural ... here was a girl who would redefine glamour and grace, and make it look very, very easy indeed."

Comeback and early fluctuations (1984–1986)

Kapadia returned to acting in 1984, two years after her separation from Khanna, saying she had a personal need to prove her own capabilities to herself. Over the next decade, she became one of the leading female actors in Hindi cinema. Her first post-hiatus film was '' Saagar''; a mutual friend had notified the director Ramesh Sippy about Kapadia's willingness to return to acting, and she was invited to audition for the part. She considered her screen test unsuccessful because she was "literally shivering" while performing it, but Sippy cast her to play the lead part opposite her ''Bobby'' co-star Rishi Kapoor. Scripted with her in mind, the film was intended to be her comeback vehicle but its one-year delay meant several of her later projects were released before, the first of which was '' Zakhmi Sher'' (1984).

Other films released before ''Saagar'' include '' Manzil Manzil'' (1984), '' Aitbaar'' (1985) and '' Arjun'' (1985). Kapadia appeared opposite Sunny Deol in ''Manzil Manzil'', a drama that was directed by Nasir Hussain. While speaking of her positive experience during the making of the film, she felt uncomfortable performing the routine song-and-dance nature of the part. Her work was deemed ineffective by ''Trade Guide'', and ''The Illustrated Weekly of India'' reported her career prospects entirely depended upon the fortunes of her next few projects. Kapadia received positive reviews for her part in Mukul Anand's Hitchcockian thriller ''Aitbaar''. She starred as Neha, a wealthy young woman whose greedy husband (Raj Babbar) plots to murder her. Discussing her performance, she said she was "a bag of nerves" while filming, which benefitted her performance because her own state coincided with her character's inner turmoil. She was cast opposite Sunny Deol for a second time in Rahul Rawail's action film ''Arjun''; it was her first commercial success since her return to films.

''Saagar'' premiered in August 1985 and was controversial for several scenes featuring Kapadia, including one in which she was seen topless for less than a second. The film was chosen as India's official entry to the 58th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. Kapadia's performance as Mona D'Silva, a young Catholic woman who is torn between her friend (Kamal Haasan) and the man she loves (Kapoor), reestablished her position in the film industry and won her a second Best Actress award at the Filmfare Awards. A reviewer in ''Asiaweek'' appreciated the film for its "polished narration and masterly technique" and labelled Kapadia "a delight". According to Rediff.com, Kapadia "performed solidly and memorably, grounding the two male leads and making the film work". A 1993 issue of ''India Today'' wrote: "''Saagar'' was in many ways a paean to her incredible beauty. She looked ravishing: auburn hair, classical face, deep eyes, an aura of sensuality. It was clear she was back."

Feroz Khan's '' Janbaaz'' (1986), which is about a man fighting drug addiction, became known for a love scene in which Kapadia and male lead Anil Kapoor share a kiss, a rarity in Hindi cinema at the time. The same year, she acted opposite Kamal Haasan in her first regional film, '' Vikram'', a Tamil-language sci-fi feature, in the minor role of Inimaasi, a young princess who falls in love with Vikram (Haasan). At that time, she worked in numerous Hindi films made by producers from South India, including '' Pataal Bhairavi'', which she detested. She later confessed to accepting these roles for financial gain rather than artistic merit: "I shudder even now when I think of those films. As an artiste I got totally corrupted."

''Kaash'' and mainstream success (1987–1989)

Kapadia's career took further shape in 1987 and, according to film journalist Firoze Rangoonwala, she was the most sought-after actress in the film industry that year. She appeared in Rajkumar Kohli's '' Insaniyat Ke Dushman'' and Mukul Anand's '' Insaaf''; both action films that were popular with audiences. ''Insaniyat Ke Dushman'' featured Kapadia as part of an ensemble, and Rangoonwala attributed its commercial success to its all-star cast and "bulky melodrama". In ''Insaaf'', she played the dual role of unrelated lookalikes: Sonia, a club dancer and Dr. Sarita, a physician.

Later in the year, she played Pooja in Mahesh Bhatt's marital drama '' Kaash''. Kapadia and Jackie Shroff starred as an estranged couple who, during a relentless legal battle over the custody of their only son, learn that the boy has brain tumour and reunite to spend the last months of his life as a family. Before filming began, she called it the most serious artistic challenge of her career. Bhatt cast Kapadia because he was aware of her own marital experience and later revealed that during the shooting she had grown increasingly invested in the story, so much that after a point he could not differentiate her from Pooja as she "became the character". Kapadia's performance was praised by critics. Pritish Nandy, the editor of ''The Illustrated Weekly of India'', asserted: "Dimple achieves the impossible. Bereft of her glitzy make-up, glamour and filmi mannerisms, she comes alive as never before: beautiful, sensitive, intense. You almost feel you've discovered a new actress on the screen." In later years, ''The Times of India'' listed it as one of Kapadia's best performances, noting her "immense strength as a performer", and Sukanya Verma wrote of the "stoic determination and touching vulnerability" with which Pooja was played, calling the outcome "extremely believable and sympathetic at once". Bhawana Somaaya reported that ''Kaash'' had established Kapadia as a performing artiste.

In '' Zakhmi Aurat'' (1988), Kapadia played Kiran Dutt, a police officer who is subjected to gang rape and, when the judicial system fails to convict the criminals, unites with other rape survivors to castrate the rapists in revenge. Among the first of a new trend of women-centred revenge films, the film was a financial success but polarised critics and attracted wide coverage for its lengthy, brutal rape scene involving Kapadia. Khalid Mohamed of ''The Times of India'' noted Kapadia's "power packed performance" but criticised the rape sequence as "utter lasciviousness" and "vulgarity spattering through the screen". Feminist magazine '' Manushi'' panned the film's low cinematic quality, including the absurdity of the action scenes and the "ugly kind of titillation" in the rape scene, but said Kapadia brought "a conviction to her role that is rare among Bombay heroines" with a performance that is "low key, moving and charming without being at all clinging or seductive". The same year, Kapadia worked with Rajkumar Kohli on the action drama '' Saazish'' and the horror film '' Bees Saal Baad'', a remake of the 1962 film of the same name. She was the action star in '' Mera Shikar'', a revenge saga directed by Keshu Ramsay, playing Bijli, a once joyous young woman who trains in martial arts to punish a notorious gangster for the crimes inflicted upon her sister. The film was described as an "extraordinarily adroit entertainer" by Subhash K. Jha, who preferred it over the "sleazy sensationalism" of ''Zakhmi Aurat'' and noted the "unusual restraint" with which Bijli's transformation was achieved.

In 1989, Kapadia appeared as Jackie Shroff's love interest in '' Ram Lakhan'', a crime drama directed by Subhash Ghai. The film was a success with both critics and audiences, becoming the second-highest grossing Hindi film of the year and earning eight nominations at the 35th Filmfare Awards. She played a courtesan-turned-vengeful mistress in '' Pati Parmeshwar''. The film was released after a well-publicised two-year court battle with the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), which initially banned it from screening for its perceived glorification of submissiveness of women through the character of the forgiving wife who is in "ignoble servility" to her husband. Other films starring Kapadia that year include Babbar Subhash's '' Pyar Ke Naam Qurbaan'' and J. P. Dutta's action picture ''Batwara''.

Professional expansion and critical acclaim (1990–1994)

In the 1990s, Kapadia started appearing in parallel cinema, a movement of Indian neo-realist art films, later citing an "inner yearning to exhibit my best potential". Those films include '' Drishti'' (1990), '' Lekin...'' (1991), '' Rudaali'' (1993) and '' Antareen'' (1993). ''Drishti'', a marital drama that was directed by Govind Nihalani and inspired by Ingmar Bergman's '' Scenes from a Marriage'' (1973), starred Kapadia and Shekhar Kapur as a married couple from Mumbai's intellectual milieu, and followed their trials and tribulations, extramarital affairs, divorce, and eventual reconciliation. Kapadia received critical acclaim for playing the protagonist, career-woman Sandhya, and later recounted her full emotional involvement in the part. The author Subramani recognised Kapadia as "an actress with hidden resources" and appreciated her "intelligent portrayal", through which Sandhya emerged as "vulnerable and intense and full of feminine wiles". A review in ''The Indian Express'' noted Kapadia's sensitive performance, presuming her own journey through separation might have enhanced her understanding of the part. The film was acknowledged as the Best Hindi Film of that year at the 38th National Film Awards, and '' Frontline'' magazine suggested that Kapadia should have earned the Best Actress award at the same function. She was named Best Actress (Hindi) of the year by the Bengal Film Journalists' Association, and won a jury award for Outstanding Performance at the 37th Filmfare Awards.

Gulzar's romantic mystery ''Lekin...'', which is based on Rabindranath Tagore's short story '' Hungry Stones'' (1895), features Kapadia as Reva, a restless spirit who haunts an ancient Rajasthani palace seeking liberation. The film traces Reva's intermittent apparitions in front of Sameer (Vinod Khanna), a museum curator who arrives at the palace and—upon watching her visual recreation of events from her tragic story—resolves to set her free. Kapadia was determined to get the part as soon as she learned about the project and kept persistently calling Gulzar and the film's producer Lata Mangeshkar until she was finally cast. To make her character more truthful, Gulzar forbade Kapadia to blink during filming, trying to capture an "endless, fixed gaze" that would give her "a feeling of being surreal". Kapadia has often cited this role as a personal favourite and the pinnacle of her career, and wished it had been given more screen time in the film. ''Lekin...'' was popular with critics and Kapadia's performance in it earned her a third Filmfare nomination. Subhash K. Jha described Reva as "the essence of evanescence" and took note of the "intense tragedy" with which Kapadia played the part.

Kapadia played a young widow in the military drama '' Prahaar'' (1991), starring and directed by Nana Patekar, with whom she would collaborate on several future projects. Kapadia and co-star Madhuri Dixit agreed to act without wearing makeup upon Patekar's insistence. The film impressed critics, who credited both actresses for their work, although most of the praise went to Patekar. Further critical attention came Kapadia's way when she played a principled office receptionist opposite Sunny Deol in the action film ''Narsimha''. In '' Haque'' (1991), a political drama directed by Harish Bhosle and scripted by Mahesh Bhatt, she played Varsha B. Singh, an Orthodox Hindu woman who, after years of subservience, acts in defiance of her oppressive husband. The author Ram Awatar Agnihotri noted Kapadia for a brave and convincing portrayal. Kapadia starred alongside Amitabh Bachchan in the fantasy '' Ajooba'', a big-budgeted Indo-Russian co-production that was co-directed by Shashi Kapoor and Gennady Vasilyev. Based on Arabian mythology and set in the fictional Afghan kingdom Baharistan, the film saw her in the role of Rukhsana, a young woman who arrives from India to rescue her father from prison. The critical response to ''Ajooba'' was mediocre, and it failed to attract viewers in Indian cinemas against success in the Soviet Union.

The release of '' Maarg'', her second project under Mahesh Bhatt's direction, was delayed for several years before its straight-to-video release in late 1992. The film is about power politics within an ashram