The year 2013 has seen a number of new and versatile young actresses make a splash at the Bollywood box office.
Though they may not be A-list stars who share the pedestal with the likes of Katrina Kaif, Deepika Padukone or Kareena Kapoor, but these young women have firmly left their imprint on viewers’ and critics’ minds and have made their mark as “actresses” to take note of.
Though they are all pretty stylish, these three women are not known only for their fashion sense or their looks. Instead, they have been recognized for the diverse roles they have played in the hand-full of films they have acted in this year.
Who are they? Read on to find out:
ADITI RAO HYDARI:
With royal blood coursing through her veins, Aditi Rao Hydari, the quintessential girl next door, packed in a powerful performance in Murder 3 and the role of a sensuous and feminine girl in Boss. The diverse roles had audiences and the film industry marvel at her ability to switch from one character to another with such ease. This, in a nutshell, is what defined her success in 2013.
Aditi tells MissMalini.com, “For me, it’s always about taking baby steps. This method has helped garner me more acceptance and has got me more recognition. Each year has gotten better and better. I’m still learning. I knew nothing when I entered the industry. I always worked on trust and you figure out what you want to do along the way.
Success is how you can better yourself, it’s about becoming more dynamic. And I think I achieved a little of that, this year.
I was very privileged to be part of Murder 3 which saw a marked change on the part of Vishesh Films. While the Murder franchise has always been male dominated, they chose to make this a female oriented film. The audiences related to my character, her innocence, her strength. It’s when people take your character home with them that you can consider it as being a success.
Also, this film reached out to a lot of people. It was very well promoted and that helped in my success a lot.
As for Boss, it was a commercial, hero oriented film, where the girl didn’t have much to do. She was there only for the glamour and to add that dash of sexiness. It was fun to play just a regular, feminine girl and I actually took up this role just for the experience of playing that type of character.
The film was a success even in smaller towns and hence, a different audience took notice of me. It was a challenge to look innocent, yet sexy, and pull off a bikini scene. Because I played this role of a feminine girl, someone whom everybody can identify with, I got a lot of acclaim and that definitely also contributed to my success.”
RICHA CHADDA:
2013 has been a good year for the critically acclaimed actress, Richa Chadda. She was the recipient of a Filmfare Award for Best actress (critics choice) for her role in Gangs Of Wasseypur (2012) and she had two film releases as well – Fukrey and Goliyon Ki Rasleela Ram-Leela.
We asked her to tell us more about her year, and she shares, “It’s been an awesome year for me since both the films did well. I’m indebted to the box office because in 2012, G.o.W was a hit (thankfully) and that got me more noticed in 2013.
I’m also lucky that the film makers whom I have worked with are the ones whom most other actors want to work with as well. I feel gifted to have learnt from them and worked with them because I didn’t have any set strategy to get work when I entered the industry.
What contributed to my success this year is that both films had positive outcomes for me. Excel Entertainment, which backed Fukrey, is a fab banner. They treat their cast well and they do their best to take their kind of cinema ahead. They give you what you need, to support your creativity. And that helped me a lot.
Fukrey gave me a commercial viability. I got good reviews from the critics. It was a risky role to play because it wasn’t typically glamorous. Thankfully, it worked in my favour.
As for Ram-Leela, I didn’t even read the script when I signed up fir it. I did it solely for the opportunity to work with Sanjay Leela Bhansali. It was a dream to work with him. I wanted the experience of working on such a big budget film where the budget for just one of my costumes was equal to the whole wardrobe budget for Fukrey.
However, the measure of my success would be the hand-written note of praise which I received from Amitabh Bachchan. I have never thought that a living legend would ever appreciate me.”
HUMA QURESHI:
Huma Qureshi saw three big releases this year – Ek Thi Daayan, Anurag Kashyap‘s Shorts and Nikhil Advani‘s D-Day.
Unfortunately, due to the fact that she has been busy with dubbing for Dedh Ishqiya, we couldn’t speak to her at length. But she did send us a message saying, “It’s difficult to chose which film I enjoyed working on the most. All of them have been special to me. And the fact that they are all so different from each other, made them exciting to work on.”