Rani Mukerji

Rani Mukerji born on March 21, 1978, is an Indian film actress who works in Bollywood movies.

Making her acting debut with Raja Ki Aayegi Baraat (1996), Mukerji had her first commercial success with Karan Johar's romance Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), her biggest hit so far, and won a Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award for her performance in the film. She later starred in many films, most of which fared below expectations. She re-invented her image with Saathiya (2002), which was commercially and critically successful.

In 2004, her performances in the hit Hum Tum and the critically acclaimed Yuva earned her the Best Actress and the Best Supporting Actress awards at the Filmfare, making her the first actress to win two major awards in the same year. She received unanimous praise for her role as a deaf and blind girl in the film Black (2005), as well as many awards for her memorable performance, establishing herself as a leading actress in Bollywood.

Deepika Padukone

Padukone was born to Ujjala and Prakash Padukone on January 5, 1986, in Copenhagen, Denmark. Her family moved to Bangalore, India, when she was only eleven months old. Her parents hail from Padukone village in Kundapura Taluk of Udupi District, Karnataka, India. Her father, Prakash Padukone, was a badminton player of international repute, and her mother is a travel agent. Deepika has a younger sister, Anisha, born in 1991 and a younger brother named Adarsha, born in 1993.

Padukone attended Sophia High School in Bangalore. She completed her Pre-university studies at Mount Carmel College in Bangalore, India. While in high school she played badminton at the state level like her father and was a member of her father's badminton club. However, she wasn't keen on pursuing a career as a badminton player and abandoned it to concentrate on her ICSE exams.

Modeling

While in college, Padukone pursued a career in modeling. Over the years, she has modeled for such Indian brand names such as Liril, Dabur Lal powder, Close-Up toothpaste and Limca, and "brand ambassador" for the Jewels of India retail jewelery show. The cosmetics company Maybelline made her its international spokesperson.

At the fifth annual Kingfisher Fashion Awards she was awarded the title "Model of the Year".[citation needed] Shortly afterward, she was chosen as one of the models for the Kingfisher Swimsuit Calendar for 2006 and won two trophies at the Idea Zee Fashion Awards: "Female Model of the Year - (Commercial Assignments)" and "Fresh Face of the Year". Padukone was also chosen as the brand ambassador of Kingfisher Airlines and later Levi Strauss and Tissot SA.

Acting

After pursuing a successful career in modeling, Padukone branched out into acting. She started by starring in the music video for the song Naam Hai Tera from the independent pop album Aap Kaa Surroor by Himesh Reshammiya.

In 2006, Padukone made her cinematic debut in the Kannada film Aishwarya starring opposite actor Upendra. She later made a successful Bollywood debut in 2007 with Farah Khan's international hit Om Shanti Om opposite Shahrukh Khan. The film featured her portraying 1970s star Shantipriya and later as Sandhya, a young woman who looks exactly like Shantipriya. Her performance was well received, earning the actress a Filmfare Best Female Debut Award as well as her first Filmfare Best Actress nomination. Taran Adarsh from indiaFM noted, "Deepika has all it takes to be a top star — the personality, the looks and yes, she's supremely talented too. Standing in the same frame as SRK and getting it right is no small achievement. She comes as a whiff of fresh air!"

Padukone next appeared in Siddharth Anand's Bachna Ae Haseeno (2008) opposite Ranbir Kapoor and then the Warner Bros.-Bollywood collaboration, Chandni Chowk To China, which released on January 16, 2009. As of January 2009, she is working on Imtiaz Ali's Love Aaj Kal opposite Saif Ali Khan.

Shilpa Shetty

Shilpa Shetty is an Indian film actress and model. Since making her debut in the film Baazigar (1993), she has appeared in nearly 50 Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada language films, her first leading role being in the 1994 Aag. Although she went through years of decline during her career, Shetty was willing to reinvent herself quite often. Her performances in Dhadkan (2000) and Rishtey (2002) were appreciated, while her portrayal of an AIDS patient in Phir Milenge (2004), won her many accolades. Her younger sister Shamita Shetty is also a Bollywood film actress.

Shetty has been embroiled in various controversies including suspected mafia links. In 2006 she was issued with a warrant on charges of obscenity. After taking part in the British Celebrity Big Brother TV show in 2007, Shetty was crowned the winner with 63% of the final vote, after an international racism controversy involving her and fellow contestants Jade Goody, Jo O'Meara and Danielle Lloyd. This was followed by her comeback to films in 2007 when she acted in two successive movies, Life in a... Metro and Apne, with her performance in the former drawing positive reviews. Shetty thus re-established her status in the film industry.

Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie (born Angelina Jolie Voight on June 4, 1975) is an American film actor and a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency. She has been cited as one of the world's most beautiful women and her off-screen life is widely reported. Jolie has received three Golden Globe Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and an Academy Award.

Though she made her screen debut as a child alongside her father Jon Voight in the 1982 film Lookin' to Get Out, Jolie's acting career began in earnest a decade later with the low-budget production Cyborg 2 (1993). Her first leading role in a major film was in Hackers (1995). She starred in the critically acclaimed biographical films George Wallace (1997) and Gia (1998), and won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the drama Girl, Interrupted (1999). Jolie achieved international fame as a result of her portrayal of video game heroine Lara Croft in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), and since then has established herself as one of the best-known and highest-paid actresses in Hollywood. She has had her biggest commercial successes with the action-comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) and the animated film Kung Fu Panda (2008).

Divorced from actors Jonny Lee Miller and Billy Bob Thornton, Jolie currently lives with actor Brad Pitt, in a relationship that has attracted worldwide media attention. Jolie and Pitt have three adopted children, Maddox, Pax, and Zahara, as well as three biological children, Shiloh, Knox, and Vivienne. Jolie has promoted humanitarian causes throughout the world, and is noted for her work with refugees through UNHCR.

Britney Jean Spears

Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is a Grammy Award-winning American pop singer and entertainer.

Raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears first appeared on national television in 1992 as a contestant on the Star Search program, and went on to star in Disney Channel's television series The New Mickey Mouse Club from 1993 to 1994. In 1997, Spears signed a recording contract with Jive, releasing her debut album ...Baby One More Time in 1999. The album established her as a pop icon and "bona fide pop phenomenon", credited for influencing the revival of teen pop in the late 1990s. Spears released her sixth studio album Circus on her 27th birthday in December 2008.

Spears is ranked as the eighth best-selling female recording artist in the United States with 32 million sold albums certified by the Recording Industry Association of America and one of the world's best-selling music artists having sold an estimated 85 million records worldwide. Spears also holds the title to multiple Guinness World Records.

Bipasha Basu

Bipasha Basu is an Indian film actress who appears in Bollywood films and former model. She was the winner of the Ford's Godrej Cinthol Supermodel contest for 1996 and is currently one of the mainstream actresses in Bollywood. She is often cited by popular magazines and newspapers as one of Asia's sexiest celebrity women.

Basu was born in New Delhi, India, to a Bengali family. She is the second of three daughters to her parents, the elder being Bidisha, and the younger—Vijayeta. Although she was born in New Delhi, her family later moved to Kolkata.

According to her, she had come into modeling and acting quite by accident, because initially she had planned to study medicine. Basu studied science till the 12th standard at Bhavan's Gangabux Kanoria Vidyamandir and later took up commerce at The Bhawanipur Gujarati Education Society College, an undergraduate college affiliated with the University of Calcutta. In Kolkata, she did modelling and rampshows partime. Although, as pointed above, she intended to become a doctor, her aversion for dissections made her opt for chartered accountancy. However, in 1996, she met well-known model Mehr Jessia in Kolkata; the latter suggested that Basu take part in the Godrej Cinthol Supermodel contest. She eventually participated, and won the contest.

Career

After winning the Ford Godrej Cinthol contest, Basu was flown to New York by the Ford Company, where she had a successful modelling career at the age of 17.

Basu made her film debut in Abbas Mustan's Ajnabee, with Akshay Kumar, Bobby Deol and Kareena Kapoor. She played a married woman who goes all out to woo her husband’s married friend, and eventually won the Filmfare Best Female Debut Award for her performance.

In 2002, Basu starred in Vikram Bhatt's thriller Raaz. The film was a big commercial success and surfaced as the biggest hit of that year. For her performance in the film, she received her first Best Actress nomination at the Filmfare. One review in The Tribune noted, "...it is Bipasha Basu who steals the show with her fine performance." She appeared as Sonia Chauhan in the 2003 hit movie Jism alongside current boyfriend John Abraham. The movie earned her a Filmfare Best Villain Award nomination.

Besides acting, Bips, as she is fondly called, did the famous video "Tu" for Sonu Nigam's album, Kismat back in her early days before she became an actress. She also made a guest appearance in Jay Sean's music video Stolen.

In 2006, she won popular acclaim for her performance in an Item number during the song Beedi in the film Omkara. The song was a national hit, and Basu's pictuarisation was appreciated.

In 2008 Basu starred in Race, her second collaboration with duo Abbas Mustan, with whom she debuted in Bollywood. Co-starring Saif Ali Khan, Akshaye Khanna, Anil Kapoor and Katrina Kaif, the film performed well at the box office, and Basu's performance was appreciated by critics. Taran Adarsh of indiaFM described her performance as "her best work so far. She’s superb". She also received good reviews for her role in Bachna Ae Haseeno opposite Ranbir Kapoor. She completed the year by appearing in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi in the song Phir Milenge Chalte Chalte.

In 2009 Bipasha signed her first Hollywood venture Chaimera alongside Billy Zane.

Preity Zinta

Preity Zinta is an Indian film actress. She has appeared in Hindi films of Bollywood, as well as Telugu, Punjabi and English language films. After graduating with a degree in criminal psychology, Zinta made her acting debut in Dil Se in 1998 followed by a role in Soldier the same year. These performances earned her a Filmfare Best Female Debut Award, and she was later recognised for her role as a teenage single mother in Kya Kehna (2000). She subsequently played a variety of character types, and in doing so has been credited with changing the image of a Hindi film heroine.

Zinta received her first Filmfare Best Actress Award in 2003 for her performance in the drama Kal Ho Naa Ho. She went on to play the lead female role in two consecutive annual top-grossing films in India: the science fiction film Koi... Mil Gaya, her biggest commercial success, and the star-crossed romance Veer-Zaara, which earned her critical acclaim. She was later noted for her portrayal of independent, modern Indian women in Salaam Namaste and Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna, top-grossing productions in overseas markets. These accomplishments have established her as a leading actress of Hindi cinema. Her first international film role was in the Canadian film Heaven on Earth, for which she was awarded the Best Actress (Silver Hugo) award at the 2008 Chicago International Film Festival.

In addition to movie acting, Zinta has written a series of columns for BBC News Online South Asia, is a regular stage performer, and along with boyfriend Ness Wadia she is a co-owner of the Indian Premier League cricket team Kings XI Punjab. She is known in the Indian media for publicly speaking her mind and openly expressing her opinions, occasionally sparking controversy.[8][9] These controversies include her being the only witness not to retract in court her earlier statements against the Indian mafia during the 2003 Bharat Shah case, for which she was awarded the Godfrey Phillips National Bravery Award.

Celina Jaitley

Celina Jaitley born 24 November 1981, is a Bollywood actress. She was crowned Miss India in 2001. She has appeared in several movies and music videos (including the Bombay Vikings' "Zara Nazron Se Kehdo" video).

Jaitley was born to a Punjabi family in Kabul, Afghanistan. Her father is a retired Indian Army Officer, and her mother was a nurse in the Indian army, as well as a former beauty queen. She has one brother, who is serving in the Indian army.

She grew up in different cities and mostly spent her time in Kolkata, India. Jaitley was raised as a Hindu. She has said that when she was young, she wanted to join the army herself, either as a doctor or a pilot. She graduated with a degree in commerce from Indira Gandhi National Open University .

Career

Jaitley was a finalist in the Miss Universe 2001 contest. In addition to her title of Miss India, Celina has won the Miss Margo Beautiful Skin, Indiatimes Surfer's Choice, and MTV's Most Wanted award.

In 2003 she made her debut in the movie industry with Feroz Khan's Janasheen. In 2007 Jaitley flew to New Zealand and shot her first international movie Love Has No Language, a romantic comedy. Whilst there she was targeted by a stalker who had followed her from India. Jaitley was said to be traumatised by the experience.

Jaitley is slated to play the character of an Iranian princess in the film Quest of Sheherzade along with actors Sean Connery and Orlando Bloom. The film is based on Arabian Nights and will be directed by Ken Khan. This will be Celina's first venture into Hollywood. She is also the brand ambassador of Egyptian tourism and D'damas.

Ayesha Takia

Ayesha Takia was born on April 10, 1986. She comes from a mixed family. Her father, Nishit, is Gujarati, and her mother, Faridah, is half British and half Maharashtrian, an Anglo-Indian Muslim. Takia went to St. Anthony's High School. Her father interacts with her producers and handles her dates. She has a younger sister named Natasha. She's intending to get married to Farhan Shaikh whom she's been seeing for a long time.

Her favorite actors from childhood are Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Johnny Depp and Shahrukh Khan, her favorite actresses are Sridevi and Rani Mukherji and her favorite Director is Sanjay Leela Bhansali.

Career

She appeared in the famous ad I'm a Complan Boy! I'm a Complan Girl! campaign alongside Shahid Kapoor and also in a music video, Falguni Pathak's Meri Chunar Udd Udd Jaye, when she was fifteen. She then appeared in the video, Shake It Daddy, when she was sixteen, which brought her to the attention of the movie industry, and a few film offers followed. She signed a contract for Socha Na Tha, then for Taarzan: The Wonder Car. However, delays in making Socha Na Tha meant that Taarzan released first and was therefore her "debut" film. She won the Filmfare Best Debut Award in 2004 for her performance in Taarzan: The Wonder Car.

She has been highly praised for her work in the 2006 Dor, a smaller budget film in which she plays the role of a young widowed Rajasthani woman living in a traditional joint family. She went on to win several awards for her performance in the film Dor, including the Zee Cine Critics Award for Best Actress.

Priyanka Chopra

Priyanka Chopra is an Indian film actress and former Miss World, who acts in Bollywood films.

After winning the title of Miss India World and later becoming Miss World 2000, Chopra made her acting debut with the Tamil film Thamizhan (2002). The following year, she made her Bollywood debut with Anil Sharma's The Hero: Love Story of a Spy and had her first commercial success with her second release, Andaaz from the same year, for which she won a Filmfare Best Female Debut Award. Becoming the second woman to win the Filmfare Best Villain Award for her critically acclaimed performance in Abbas-Mustan's Aitraaz (2004), Chopra later went on to deliver commercial success with films like Mujhse Shaadi Karogi (2004), Krrish (2006), her biggest commercial success so far, and Don - The Chase Begins Again (2006), thus establishing herself as a popular actress.

Kareena Kapoor

Kareena Kapoor is an Indian film actress appearing in Bollywood films. Born into the Kapoor film family, she made her acting debut with Refugee (2000), for which she won a Filmfare Best Female Debut Award. In 2001, Kapoor received her first commercial success with her second release, Mujhe Kucch Kehna Hai and later appeared in Karan Johar's melodrama Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, which became India's top-grossing film in the overseas market that year and her biggest commercial success to date.

After receiving negative reviews due to a series of unsuccessful films and repetitive roles between 2002 and 2003, Kapoor accepted more demanding parts to avoid being typecast. Her portrayal of a sex worker in Chameli (2004) proved to be the turning point in her career and garnered her the Filmfare Special Performance Award. She later received two Critics Awards for Best Actress at the Filmfare ceremony for her performances in the critically acclaimed Dev (2004) and Omkara (2006). After taking on such a range of acting roles between 2004 and 2006, she was recognized for displaying versatility as an actress.

In 2007, Kapoor earned a Filmfare Best Actress Award for her performance in the commercially successful comedy-romance Jab We Met. Although the box office earnings of her films have varied considerably, Kapoor has established herself as one of the leading contemporary actresses in the Hindi film industry.

Amisha Patel

Amisha Patel is an Indian Bollywood actress. Making her acting debut in the blockbuster Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai (2000), Patel won critical praise for her performance in Gadar: Ek Prem Katha (2001), which became one of the biggest hits in the history of Hindi cinema. She would subsequently star in a number of films, most of which proved unsuccessful at the box office. However, her performance in the 2006 film Ankahee, received critical recognition, and she followed it withHer father's schoolmate, Rakesh Roshan, offered her a position in the film Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai (2000) and Amisha grabbed the opportunity. The role of an exuberant college girl in love, undergoing a tortuous time at losing her lover and rediscovering a more mature relationship gave Patel scope to perform. The film was a smashing success and established Patel as a rising star, earning her awards for Best Debut at a number of award ceremonies. In her second film, the Telugu language drama Badri, she starred opposite Pawan Kalyan. The film was a major success, grossing more than Rs 120 million in India.

2001 saw her appearing in Anil Sharma's controversial cross-border romance, Gadar: Ek Prem Katha, alongside Sunny Deol. Patel signed on much before she shot into the limelight with Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai and was selected among 500 newcomers who auditioned for the film. It went on to become the top-grossing film of the year, as well as the biggest hit of the 21st century, earning Rs 973 million in India. Set during the 1947 Indo-Pakistani conflicts, it featured Patel as Sakeena, a Muslim girl who finds refuge in Deol's house during the riots, and subsequently falls for him. Her performance was praised, and won her the Filmfare Special Performance Award. IndiaFM's Taran Adarsh concluded "Despite being one-film-old, Amisha Patel deserves full marks for handling the complex role with elegance. She looks the character she is portraying and impresses with a natural performance." The film was perceived as being excessively anti-Pakistani.

These successes were followed by a series of films that flopped at the box-office. In Yeh Zindagi Ka Safar (2001), she played a successful singer who was abandoned by her mother at the time of her birth. a supporting role in the hit Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007).

Riya Sen

Riya Sen is an Indian film actress and model. Riya, who hails from a family of actors including her grandmother Suchitra Sen, mother Moon Moon Sen and sister Raima Sen, began her acting career in 1991 as a child artiste in the film Vishkanya. Her first commercial success in her film career was with Style, a 2001 Hindi low-budget sex comedy directed by N. Chandra. Some of her other films include producer Pritish Nandy's musical film, Jhankaar Beats (2001) in Hinglish, director David Dhawan's comedy film, Shaadi No. 1 (2005) and director-cinematographer Santhosh Sivan's Malayalam horror film Ananthabhadram (2005).

Riya was first recognised as a model when she performed in Falguni Pathak's music video Yaad Piya Ki Aane Lagi at the age of sixteen. Since then, she has appeared in music videos, television commercials, fashion shows, and on magazine covers.

Riya has worked as an activist and appeared in an AIDS awareness music video with the aim of dispelling popular myths about the disease. She also helped raise funds for pediatric eye-care. Riya has faced controversies such as a MMS clip with actor Ashmit Patel, her semi-nude photograph on photographer Dabboo Ratnani's annual calendar and her on-screen kisses in a conservative Indian film industry.

Katrina Kaif

Biography
Kaif was born in Hong Kong on July 16, 1984, to an South Asians in Hong Kong to a Kashmiri father (who has acquired British citizenship) and a British mother. She has eight siblings, seven sisters and one brother. At age fourteen she was approached by an agent and began modeling; her first job was a jewellery campaign. She continued modelling in London.
Career

At the age of fourteen, Kaif started modeling for a jewelry campaign in London, and was subsequently discovered by filmmaker Kaizad Gustad, who gave her a part in his film Boom (2003). She moved to Mumbai and was offered a number of modeling assignments. However, filmmakers were at first hesitant to sign her because of her linguistic shortcomings. Katrina saw success with the 2005 film Sarkar where she played the brief role of Abhishek Bachchan's love interest. Her next release, Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya, where in she was paired opposite Salman Khan,In 2007 Katrina's first release was the hit movie Namastey London, wherein she starred as a British Indian alongside Akshay Kumar for the second time after Humko Deewana Kar Gaye that was a box office dud. She then appeared in a series of box office hits that include Apne, Partner and Welcome. 2008 saw her play a negative role for the first time in Abbas-Mustan's super hit action thriller Race. She played the role of Saif Ali Khan's secretary who is secretly in love with him. She appeared next in Anees Bazmee's box office blockbuster Singh Is Kinng alongside Akshay Kumar for the fourth time. Her last release of the year, Subhash Ghai's Yuvvraaj, was a surprise disaster at the box office.

Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan

Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan or Aishwarya Bachchan (Birthname: Aishwarya Rai, Tulu: ಐಶ್ವರ್ಯಾ ರೈ) born 1 November 1973 is an Indian actress and former Miss World. Before starting her acting career, she worked as a model and gained fame after winning the Miss World title in 1994.

Rai made her movie debut in Mani Ratnam's Tamil film Iruvar (1997) opposite Mohanlal. She had her first commercial success in the Tamil movie Jeans (1998), and came to the attention of Bollywood in the Hindi movie Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999), directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Her performance in the film won her the Filmfare Best Actress Award, and she successfully performed in Bhansali's next project, Devdas (2002), for which she won her second Best Actress Award at the Filmfare. Since then, she has acted in over forty movies in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, and English, including the international productions Bride & Prejudice (2003), Mistress of Spices (2005), The Last Legion (2007) and The Pink Panther 2 (2009) in English.