Date of Birth: 2nd October, 1942.
Nickname: Jublee Girl, Tomboy
Address: Azad Road, Juhu, Mumbai-49 Education: J B Petit School Debut Film: "Goonj Uthi Shehnai"
Film Awards
Filmfare Best Actress Award for "Kati Patang"
Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award (2002)
International Indian Film Academy Awards for outstanding achievement in Indian cinema (2006)
Pune International Film Festival--Lifetime Achievement Award (2007)
Bollywood Award--Lifetime Achievement Award (2007)
Biography
Asha Parekh was born at Bangalore in a Gujrati family. She is commonly known as jubilee girl as most of her films celebrated Silver jubilee or Golden jubilee at box office. Asha Parekh started learning Indian classical dance at an early age. Jubilee girl made her debut in Bollywood as child artiste in the film "Aasmaan". Film director Bimal Roy saw her dance at a stage show and cast her in his film "Baap Beti". The film failed miserably at box office and Asha was disappointed to such an extent that after doing couple of more films as child artiste, she left the film line and resumed her schooling.
After completing her schooling, Asha again entered in Bollywood and made her debut as lead actress in Vijay Bhatt's film "Goonj Uthi Shehnai" but she had to leave this film midway in favour of actress Ameeta as the filmmaker did not consider her as star material. The very next day she was signed by writer-director Nasir Hussain for his film "Dil Deke Dekho" opposite Shammi kapoor and the film proved super-duper hit at box office and made her a huge star. Thereafter, there was a long and fruitful association with Hussain. He went on to cast her as lead heroine in some more films like "Jab Pyar Kisi Se Hota Hai", "Teesri Manzil", "Baharon Ke Sapne", "Pyar Ka Mausam", "Caravan" etc". Aasha Parekh also did cameo role in the film "Manzil Manzil".
Asha Parekh was primarily known as glamour girl until director Raj Khosla gave her a serious image role in his film "Do Badan". After that director Shamanta Kumar gave her more dramatic roles in his films "Paagal Kahin Kaa" and "Kati Patang"; the latter earned her the Filmfare best actress award. After a long successful career in films she quit acting in 1995. In the 1990s, she also ventured in production and direction of TV serials.
Trivia
* Asha is fluent in Hindi, English and Gujrati languages.
* Asha was also chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification (Censor Board) of India. She held this post from 1998 to 2001, during that period she took some strong decision like not giving clearance to Shekhar Kapur's "Elizabeth".
* Asha Parekh is first Gujarati to become a superstar in Hindi films.
* Asha is unmarried; she says her reputation of being unapproachable probably made people hesitate in asking for her hand in marriage.
* Asha Parekh says that she didn't have affairs with her leading men but loved playing pranks on them.
* As a classically trained dancer, she did stage shows from childhood to middle-age.
* Shammi Kapoor is her favorite leading man, and although they played a romantic pair in their four films together, he never made a pass at her in real life and always called her "bhatiji" (niece), while she called him "chacha" (uncle).
* In her eagerness to devote more time to do dance shows, she turned down film roles that made stars out of others.
* Although, Shammi Kapoor was her favorite leading man, and she also liked working with his younger brother Shashi Kapoor, her dream was to work with their elder brother, Raj Kapoor but it was a half-realized dream because the film that she made with him, "Chor Mandili" (1982) never got released.
* Her personal favorite films are Do Badan (1966), Chirag (1969), Kati Patang (1970), Pagla Kahin Ka (1970) and Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki (1978).
* Her favorite song is "Jayiye aap kahaan jaayenge" from the film Mere Sanam (1965).
* In addition to Nasir Hussain, seven major directors cast Asha more than once due to her immense talent, beauty, and professionalism: Pramod Chakravorthy, Vijay Anand, Raj Khosla, Raghunath Jhalani, Mohan Segal, Shakti Samanta, and J.P. Dutta..
* She gave up acting in 1995 to concentrate on her passion of directing television serials, of which she had done many.
* She was the president of the Cine Artistes' Association from 1994-2000, and later said that it was time consuming, difficult, and ultimately a "thankless job."
* The Asha Parekh Hospital in Mumbai is named after her, because of her many humanitarian contributions.
* She is the treasurer of the Cine Artists' Welfare Association Trust (CINTA), which is a home for many film and television artistes fallen on bad days.