Kishore Kumar was an Indian playback singer, musician and actor. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest, most influential and dynamic singers in the history of Indian music. Kumar was one of the most popular singers in the Indian subcontinent, notable for his yodelling and ability to sing songs in different voices. He used to sing in different genres but some of his rare compositions, considered classics, were lost in time.
Preity G Zinta is an Indian entrepreneur and actress primarily known for her work in Hindi films. After graduating with degrees in English honours and criminal psychology, Zinta made her acting debut in Dil Se.. in 1998, followed by a role in Soldier in the same year. These performances earned her the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut, and she was later recognised for her role as a teenage single mother in Kya Kehna (2000). She subsequently established a career as a leading actress of Hindi cinema with a variety of character types. Her roles, often deemed culturally defiant, along with her unconventional screen persona won her recognition and several accolades.
Karisma Kapoor is an Indian actress who primarily works in Hindi films. A member of the Kapoor family, she is the daughter of actors Randhir Kapoor and Babita, and the elder sister of actress Kareena Kapoor. She is the recipient of several accolades, including a National Film Award and four Filmfare Awards.
Chick lit is a term used to describe a type of popular fiction targeted at young women. Widely used in the 1990s and 2000s, the term has fallen out of fashion with publishers, while writers and critics have rejected its inherent sexism. Novels identified as chick lit typically address romantic relationships, female friendships, and workplace struggles in humorous and lighthearted ways. Typical protagonists are urban, heterosexual women in their late twenties and early thirties: the 1990s chick lit heroine represented an evolution of the traditional romantic heroine in her assertiveness, financial independence and enthusiasm for conspicuous consumption.
Pooja Batra Shah is an Indian-American actress, model and beauty pageant titleholder. She primarily works in Hindi films. She won the runner-up title at the Femina Miss India contest in 1993 and was crowned Femina Miss India International 1993 and represented India at Miss International 1993.
Gayatri Joshi is an Indian former actress, video jockey, model and beauty pageant titleholder. She appeared in Hindi films. She won the title of Femina Miss India International in the year 2000 and represented India at Miss International 2000. She starred in the 2004 film Swades, her only acting credit to date. She is married to businessman Vikas Oberoi since 2005.
Jan Nisar Akhtar was an Indian poet of Urdu ghazals and nazms, and a part of the Progressive Writers' Movement, who was also a lyricist for Bollywood.
Raima Sen is an Indian actress who is known for her work in Hindi and Bengali films.
Niharika Singh is an actress, filmmaker and beauty pageant titleholder who won Miss Earth India 2005 and represented India at Miss Earth 2005. She made her acting debut with the critically acclaimed drama Miss Lovely which competed in Un Certain Regard at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. Niharika was selected for Berlinale Talents in 2016.
Rajashree is an Indian novelist and film-maker. She has been working in the Mumbai film industry after studying film direction at the Film and Television Institute of India. She has written and directed a film, The Rebel, which won a National Award in the Best Short Fiction Film category at the 43rd National Film Awards. The jury presented the award "for showing an adolescent's journey to maturity and his coming to terms with his mother." The film was screened at many film festivals. She has made a film about communal violence called The Connection.
Gulzar is an Indian Urdu poet, lyricist, author, screenwriter, and film director known for his works in Hindi cinema. He is regarded as one of greatest Urdu poets of this era. He started his career with music director S.D. Burman as a lyricist in the 1963 film Bandini and worked with many music directors including R. D. Burman, Salil Chowdhury, Vishal Bhardwaj and A. R. Rahman. Gulzar also writes poetry, dialogues and scripts. He directed films such as Aandhi and Mausam during the 1970s and the TV series Mirza Ghalib in the 1980s. He also directed Kirdaar in 1993.
Kanika Dhillon is an Indian producer, author and screenwriter known for her significant contributions in the Indian entertainment industry. While her writing journey began with the best selling novel, Bombay Duck is a Fish (2011), which was launched by Shah Rukh Khan; she followed with two successive and acclaimed novels soon after, Shiva and the Rise of the Shadows (2013), and the drama The Dance of Durga (2016).
Diana Penty is an Indian actress who works predominantly in Hindi films. She began her modelling career in 2005 when she was signed up by Elite Models India. Penty then made her acting debut with the romantic comedy film Cocktail (2012), for which she received Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut nomination.
Manorama was an Indian character actress in Bollywood known best for her role as the comical tyrant aunt in Seeta Aur Geeta (1972) and in films such as Ek Phool Do Maali (1969) and Do Kaliyaan (1968). She started her career as a child artiste in 1936 in Lahore, under the name Baby Iris. Thereafter, she made her debut as an adult actress in 1941, and performed to her final role in Water in 2005, her career extending over 60 years. Through her career she acted in over 160 films. After playing heroine roles in the early 1940s, she settled into playing villainous or comic roles. She played comic roles in superhit films such as Half Ticket appearing alongside Kishore Kumar and the legendary Madhubala. She gave memorable performances in Dus Lakh, Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje, Mujhe Jeene Do, Mehboob ki Menhdi, Caravan, Bombay to Goa and Lawaris.
Rajashree Birla is an Indian philanthropist. She is the wife of the late Aditya Birla. After her husband's death in 1995, Rajashree began working in CSR and charity sectors, developing a large philanthropic organization funded by her family. In 2011, the Government of India honoured her with the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award, for her services to society.
Naseem Banu was an Indian actress. She was referred to as Naseem. Starting her acting career in the mid-1930s she continued to act till mid-1950s. Her first film was Khoon Ka Khoon (Hamlet) (1935) with Sohrab Modi under whose Minerva Movietone banner she acted for several years. Her high-point came with Modi's Pukar (1939) in which she played the role of Empress Nur Jahan. According to composer Naushad she got the sobriquet Pari-Chehra Naseem through the publicity advertisements of her films. She was the mother of actress Saira Banu and mother-in-law to the actor Dilip Kumar.
Beiimaan Love is a 2016 Indian Hindi-language thriller film directed and produced by Rajeev Chaudhari. It stars Sunny Leone and Rajneesh Duggal and marks the acting debut of Daniel Weber and Ziesha Nancy.
Meena Shorey was a Pakistani film actress who worked first in Indian cinema and later Pakistani cinema. She appeared in Hindi/Urdu and Punjabi films. Credited in films by her mononym, Meena, her real name was Khurshid Jehan. She started her acting career playing a character role, as Ambhi, Raja of Taxila's sister in Sohrab Modi's Sikandar (1941). Married to her third husband, Roop K. Shorey, by the mid-1940s, she found fame when she acted in her husband's film Ek Thi Larki (1949), opposite actor Motilal. The story was written by I. S. Johar, who also starred in the film. The "foot-tapping" music composed by Vinod became a "huge hit", with Meena becoming an "icon" for the "new liberated" young women. Meena was acclaimed as the "Lara Lappa Girl", from the song of same title in the film. She was one of the first women to be recognised in Indian cinema as a "comedienne of calibre". She was also popularly known as The Droll Queen of Partition as she worked in both in India and Pakistan.
Ipsita Pati is an Indian actress and beauty pageant titleholder who represented her country at Miss Intercontinental 2011 where she placed Top 15. She has won multiple beauty pageant contests including that of Miss Asia and Miss International. Pati has also acted in Hindi film, Chor Bazaari (2014). Forty Two Feet Long Statues of Lord Shiva and Parvati donated by Ipsita Pati at Budhakhol, Buguda, Odisha.
