Name | Eesha Koppikar |
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Yearsactive | 1998–present |
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Birth date | September 19, 1976 |
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Birth place | Mumbai, Maharashtra, India |
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Occupation | Actress, Model |
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Birthname | Isha Koppikar |
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Othername | Isha NarangEesha Koppikhar NarangEesha NarangIshaa Koppikar |
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Spouse | Timmy Narang (2009–present )
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Eesha Koppikhar (Konkanii: ईशा कोप्पीकर) (born 19 September 1976), born Isha Koppikar, is an Indian actress and model who has appeared in Kannada, Telugu, Tamil and Hindi films. Koppikhar married her longtime boyfriend Rohit (Timmy) Narang on 29 November 2009.
Background
Koppikhar was born in
Mumbai,
India, hailing from the
Konkani speaking
Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin community. She has one younger brother. Eesha graduated in Life Sciences at
Ramnarain Ruia College in
Mumbai. It was during her time at college that she appeared in a photoshoot for Indian photographer
Gautam Rajadhyaksha. The shoot led to work in advertising as a model, notably for ''
L'Oréal'', ''
Rexona'', ''
Camay'', ''Tips & Toes'' and ''
Coca-Cola''. Eesha contested the 1995
Miss India contest, winning the Miss Talent Crown. Her modelling work gave her an introduction to the film industry and to her first film appearance in the Tamil movie ''
Kaadhal Kavithai'' in 1998. Since then, Eesha has made over forty films and has several
Hindi films in production or due for release in 2010. She continues to model for fashion designers
Anita Dongre and Pria Kataria Puri, and is currently the Indian representative of the Italian fashion company ''Police Watches and Jewellery''. Outside her work in film, music and television, Eesha is a spokesperson for the animal rights organisation
PETA and received the 10th Anniversary Huminatarian Award in December 2009. She has a black-belt in
Taekwondo. She recently showcased her
Taekwondo skills in front of her master where she demonstrated self defence skills.
Film career
South India
The 1997
Hindi film ''Ek Tha Dil Ek Thi Dhadhkan'', directed by
Shahrukh Sultan, is often quoted as being Koppikhar's first film, but there is no evidence the project was ever released. Her career must therefore be said to have begun with the 1998 Tamil film ''
Kaadhal Kavithai'', co-starring alongside
Prashanth, and directed by
Agathiyan, with music by Maestro
Ilaiyaraaja. She was awarded the
Filmfare Best Female Debut Award. Continuing her Tamil film career, Koppikhar's second movie was ''
En Swasa Kaatre'' in 1998, opposite
Arvind Swamy, directed by
K. S. Ravi, with music by renowned music director
A. R. Rahman. 1998 saw a third film, this time a cameo appearance in
Praveen Kanth's ''
Jodi'', starring
Prashanth and
Simran Bagga.
In 1999, Koppikhar alternated between appearances in the Telugu comedy ''Chandralekha'', co-starring Nagarjuna and Ramya Krishnan, directed by Krishna Vamshi; and the Tamil gangland movie ''Nenjinile'', starring Vijay and directed by S. A. Chandrasekhar.
By 2000, Koppikhar's sights were on Bollywood, but this did not stop her appearing in four Kannada films: ''Hoo Anthiya Uhoo Anthiya'' with Ramesh and directed by Praveen Naik, with music by Karthik Raja; ''Nuvvu Vasthavani'', starring and directed by Ravichandran; alongside actor-director Ravichandran again in ''O Nanna Nalle''; and finally ''Surya Vamsha'', directed by S Narayan and starring Vishnuvardhan in a double role as father and son.
After four films in 2000, and a detour to Mumbai for a brief appearance in ''Fiza'' and an item number in ''Rahul'', Koppikhar returned to the south in 2001 for Sundar C's Tamil project ''Kaathal Solla Vanthen''. This was another film never to leave the development stage although a soundtrack of the same name was made available. However, the Telugu comedy ''Prematho Raa'', starring Venkatesh and Simran Bagga, and directed by Uday Shankar, saw Koppikhar's penultimate South Indian role. She signed off her South Indian career in the Tamil action film ''Narassima'', directed by Tirupathisamy and starring Vijayakanth.
Bollywood 2000–2002
Taking time out from four
Kannada films in 2000, Koppikhar appeared alongside
Karisma Kapoor and
Hrithik Roshan in
Khalid Mohamed's ''
Fiza''. An item number appearance in
Prakash Jha's ''
Rahul'' completed Koppikhar's introduction to
Hindi film. Brief returns to South India in 2001 were coupled with two more
Bollywood films: ''
Pyaar Ishq Aur Mohabbat'', directed by
Rajiv Rai and starring
Sunil Shetty alongside a young
Arjun Rampal; and
K. Raghavendra Rao's urban comedy ''
Aamdani Atthani Kharcha Rupaiyaa'', opposite
Govinda,
Juhi Chawla and
Johnny Lever.
By 2002, Koppikhar appeared to be consigned to support roles until she was asked by Ram Gopal Varma to appear in an item number for his underworld movie ''Company'' starring Ajay Devgan, Vivek Oberoi and Manisha Koirala. The number in question was ''Khallas'', choreographed by Ganesh Hegde and the effect on cinema audiences and critics was to leave her with the enduring nickname ''Khallas Girl''. A second notable item number, ''Ishq Samundar'', in Sanjay Gupta's ''Reservoir Dogs'' remake ''Kaante'', starring Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt and Sunil Shetty, was enough to raise her profile and in the following year she took the Stardust Award for ''Most Exciting New Face'' for ''Khallas''.
Bollywood 2003–2007
Koppikhar's career produced five films in 2003. In ''
Dil Ka Rishta'', directed by
Naresh Malhotra, she played opposite
Aishwarya Rai and
Arjun Rampal.
Prawaal Raman's portmanteau film ''
Darna Mana Hai'' saw her alongside college whipping boy
Aftab Shivdasani.
Dr Chandrakprakash Dwivedi cast her in the role of
Urmila Matondkar's sister in the sectarian film ''
Pinjar'', also starring
Manoj Bajpai. A brief appearance in
J. P. Dutta's war movie ''
LOC Kargil'' paired her opposite
Sunil Shetty again. And in
Harry Baweja's ''
Qayamat: City Under Threat'', she played one of three terrorists fighting off co-stars
Ajay Devgan and
Sunil Shetty; a role which would bring her a
Filmfare nomination in the ''Best Villain'' category.
In 2004, Koppikhar's films were releasing on average every two months. Both Mani Shankar's science fantasy ''Rudraksh'' and Kundan Shah's madcap comedy ''Ek Se Bhadkhar Ek'' teamed her next to perennial acting partner Sunil Shetty. In ''Krishna Cottage'', she was cast opposite Sohail Khan for Santram Verma's creepy ghost story. ''Inteqam'', directed by Pankaj Parashar and co-starring Manoj Bajpai, saw her revive the role played by Sharon Stone in the original Hollywood version: ''Basic Instinct''. Another cameo appearance in Kunal Kohli's ''Hum Tum'' with Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukerji could have left a comedy taste to 2004, but this would be the year of street protests following Karan Razdan's controversial ''Girlfriend'', co-starring Amrita Arora and Aashish Chaudhary caught in a lesbian love triangle. The film provoked public poster burning and calls for the film to be banned.
In 2005, she eased up somewhat only releasing four films. Sangeeth Sivan's bawdy comedy ''Kyaa Kool Hai Hum'', with Anupam Kher, Ritesh Deshmukh and Tusshar Kapoor saw her nominated in three separate award ceremonies (IIFA, Zee Cine Award and Star Screen Awards) for best comedy role. Two more comedies saw her make guest appearances: David Dhawan's Salman Khan vehicle ''Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya?'', and Abbas-Mustan's whodunit, ''36 China Town'' with Akshaye Khanna and Kareena Kapoor. A return to Ram Gopal Varma's Factory saw her alongside Chunky Pandey in Vishram Sawant's gangster flick ''D: Underworld Badhshah'', starring Randeep Hooda.
Farhan Akhtar directed a 2006 remake of the Amitabh Bachchan hit ''Don: The Chase Begins Again'', this time with Shahrukh Khan in the lead. Koppikhar was cast as Khan's moll ''Anita''. By now the success of ''Don'' was in contrast to her stuttering career with a string of films stuck in production or abandoned. Vicky Ranawat's ''Haseena Smart Sexy and Dangerous'' crept out towards the end of 2006, Jagdish A Sharma's murder mystery ''Garhee'' appeared on DVD, Hansel Mehta's ''Raakh'' was dropped, whilst Koppikhar's highest profile film of 2007, Nikhil Advani's multi starrer ''Salaam-e-Ishq'', saw her sharing limited screen time with Sohail Khan. Ram Gopal Varma's much discussed ''Shabri'', directed by Lalit Marathe -a role which led to her being unrecognised in character and barred from the film set by security men- has yet to attract a distributor. Later in the year came the haunted love triangle of Ram Gopal Varma's ''Darling'', with Fardeen Khan and Esha Deol.
Bollywood 2008–present
Koppikhar's first film release of 2008 was
Atul Agnihotri's ''
Hello'', based on the novel ''One Night in a Call Centre'' by
Chetan Bhagat. This was followed within weeks by ''
Ek Vivaah... Aisa Bhi'', a Rajshri Production directed by Khashik Ghatak and co-starring
Sonu Sood. She has had three films released in 2010,
Jahnu Barua's ''
Har Pal'', ''
Right Yaaa Wrong'' by
Neeraj Pathak and
Manoj Tiwari's ''
Hello Darling''.
Her latest release is ''Shabri'' (2011) directed by Lalit Marathe where she plays a women gangster of Mumbai.
Outside Bollywood
Between filming Koppikhar, like many
Bollywood actors, performs in stage music shows. In addition to this she has appeared in two music videos: ''Patli Kamar'' by
KK for a private album commissioned by
Sony in 2001/2002; and
Bandish Projekt's ''Bhor (Satyam Shivam Sundaram)'' in 2004, choreographed by
Bosco-Caesar. In 2006 she appeared onstage in the
Indian Idol Grand Final to dance with the two finalists, and 2007 saw her as one of three judges in the celebrity dance competition ''
Nach Baliye''3, alongside director
David Dhawan and
Vaibhavi Merchant. She served as a judge in the
Miss Universe 2008 contest, held on 14 July in
Vietnam alongside, amongst others, fashion designer Roberto Cavalli and former winner in 2004 Jennifer Hawkins.
In 2008, prior to her taking on her married name, she adopted a second spelling change to her name from Ishaa Koppikar to Eesha Koppikhar, following the advice of numerologist Niraj Mancchanda.
In August 2009, Koppikhar presented the new Colors wrestling show ''100% De Dhana Dhan.'',
Filmography
References
External links
Category:1976 births
Category:Living people
Category:Indian actors
Category:Indian film actors
Category:Indian Hindus
Category:Indian female models
Category:People from Mumbai
Category:Hindi film actors
Category:Konkani people
Category:Filmfare Awards South winners
de:Isha Koppikar
ml:ഇഷ കോപികർ
mr:इशा कोप्पिकर
pl:Isha Koppikar
fi:Isha Koppikar
zh:伊莎·柯比卡