The Bidai were a band of Atakapa Indians from eastern Texas.^[1]

History[link]

Their oral history says that the Bidai were the original peoples in their region.^[2] Their central settlements were along Bedias Creek, but their territory ranged from the Brazos River to the Neches River.^[1] The first written record of the tribe was in 1691, by Spanish explorers who said they lived near the Hasinai. French explorer François Simars de Bellisle described them as agriculturalists in 1718 and 1720.^[3]

They had three distinct villages or bands in the 18th century. The Deadose were the northernmost band of Bidai, who broke of in the early 18th century.^[1] The 18th century population of Bidai is estimated to be 600, while 200 additional Deadoses.^[4]

In 1770, the band colluded with French settlers to sell guns to the Lipan Apaches, as all parties were enemies with the Spanish.^[3]

The Bidai suffered several epidemics during 1776-77, reducing their population by at least half. The survivors joined neighboring tribes, such as the Akokisas and Koasati. Some settled on the Brazos Indian Reservation in present day Young County, Texas and were removed with the Caddo to Indian Territory.^[3] Those that remained formed a village twelve miles from Montgomery, Texas, growing corn and picking cotton for hire in the mid-19th century.^[2]

Andre Sjoberg published an ethnohistory of the Bidai in 1951.^[5]

Lifeways[link]

The Bidai hunted, gathered, fished, grew maize, and bartered their surplus maize. They snared game and trapped them in cane pens. In summers they lived along the coasts, but in winters they moved inland,^[6] when they lived in bearskin tents.^[4]

Before contact, the Bidai made their own ceramics, but quickly adopted metal utensils from European trade. They still made ceramic pots into the 19th century, and they also wove a variety of baskets.^[4] In 1803, Henry Hopkins Sibley wrote that Bidai had "an excellent character for honesty and punctuality."^[2]

The structure of their cradleboards altered the shape of their skulls. They also enhanced their appearance through body and facial tattooing.^[4]

Bidai medicine men were herbalists and performed sweatbathing. Patients could be treated by being raised scaffolds over smudge fires. While other Atakapan bands are known for their ritual cannibalism, the practice was never recorded among the Bidai.^[4]

Language[link]

Bidai was an Atakapan language, which is now extinct. Below are some of the few Bidai words ever recorded.

Name[link]

Bidai has been spelled Biday, Bedies, Bidaises, Beadweyes, Bedies, Bedees, Bidias, Bedais, Midays, Vidais, Vidaes, Vidays. Their name could be Caddo, meaning "brushwood." Their autonym was Quasmigdo.^[5]

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Sturtevant, William C., general editor and Raymond D. Fogelson, volume editor. Handbook of North American Indians: Southeast. Volume 14. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution, 2004. ISBN 0-16-072300-0.

External links[link]

• Bidai Indians, Texas State Historical Association
• Bidai Indian History, Access Genealogy

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (February 2010)

Leena Chandavarkar was an Indian actress who appeared in Bollywood movies and is now appearing in reality shows.

Biography[link]

Leena Chandavarkar was born to an Army officer in Dharwad in Karnataka in 1951.^[1]

Career[link]

Leena Chandavarkar came into the limelight after she was one of the runner-ups for the Fresh Face Competition organized across the country by Filmfare. Initially she worked in advertisements but eventually ventured into films. She made her debut in Man Ka Meet for Sunil Dutt, and it was his wife Nargis who groomed her to be an actress. Between 1969-1979, Leena acted in many films. She was cast opposite to majority of popular heroes of that era. She gave one of her best acting performances in Mehboob Ki Mehndi with Rajesh Khanna in 1971.

Bairaag is another example where she acted against the great screen legend Dilip Kumar and a mighty star cast like Saira Bano, Prem Chopra and Helen.

She appeared as a guest judge for the first 2 episodes of "K for Kishore", a new reality TV singing show launched by Sony TV during December 2007. She is now appearing again for the reality shows. She also penned down some songs for Amit Kumar and Rajesh Bambal for a music album.

Personal Life[link]

She had an arranged marriage to her first husband, Siddharth Bandodkar, who came from a prominent political family. He died from an accidental gunshot, a few days into the marriage, leaving Leena a widow at age 25. A few years later, she defied her father by marrying singing legend Kishore Kumar. Her father initially objected because Kumar had been married three times already, and was more than 20 years older than her, but he soon came around and welcomed Kumar into the family. She has a son with Kishore Kumar named Sumit Kumar. Kumar died in 1987, leaving Leena a widow at age 36. She lives with her son Sumit, her step-son Amit Kumar and his wife, and with Amit's mother.

Filmography[link]

References[link]

• Leena Chandavarkar at the Internet Movie Database

This article about an Indian actor or actress is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Raj Babbar
Born	(1952-06-23) June 23, 1952 (age 60) Tundla, Uttar Pradesh
Term	1994-1999
Political party	Samajwadi Party(Previously), Indian National Congress(Present)
Religion	Hindu
Spouse	Nadira Zaheer Smita Patil
Children	Arya Babbar, Juhi Babbar & Prateik Babbar
Signature	150px

Raj Babbar is a Hindi and Punjabi film actor since 1977 and the current Member of Parliament from Firozabad which he won by defeating Dimple Yadav, wife of Akhilesh Yadav & daughter-in-law of Mulayam Singh Yadav.^[1] This is his fourth term as MP, in previous terms he was the part of Samajwadi Party.

Early life[link]

Babbar was born in Tundla, Uttar Pradesh on 23 June 1952. He is an alumnus of the 1975 batch of National School of Drama and graduated from Agra College.

Career[link]

He trained in the Method school of acting at NSD, which is involved in Street Theatre. After his training in New Delhi he moved to Mumbai to try his luck. He started his film career opposite Reena Roy, one of the well known actresses of that time.

He also featured in the debut film of the then 13-year-old Padmini Kolhapure. He became a consistent feature of the B. R. Chopra banner; Nikaah with Deepak Parashar and Salma Agha, Aaj Ki Aawaz with Smita Patil, with whom he had an affair and subsequently married, despite being married with two children at the time.

He also achieved success in Punjabi cinema as he gave remarkable performances in Chann Pardesi (1980) and Long Da Lishkara (1986) - two arthouse movies with serious themes treated in a realistic manner - a far cry from the melodramatic & almost hysterical tenor of most Punjabi films of the time.

He also appeared in many episodes of the famous Indian TV series Mahabharat, as king Bharat.

He also starred in the hit Punjabi films Aasra Pyar Da (1983), Marhi Da Diva (1989), Mahaul Theek Hai (1999), Shaheed Uddham Singh (2000), Yaaran Naal Baharan (2005), and Ek Jind Ek Jaan (2006). It has been said that Babbar often does Punjabi films for free, as an act of generosity to Punjabi cinema.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life[link]

Raj Babbar married Nadira Zaheer, daughter of noted theatre personality Sajjad Zaheer. Arya Babbar and Juhi Babbar are his children from Nadira.

He then married actress Smita Patil who gave birth to their son Prateik Babbar. Smita died of post-partum complications two weeks later. Raj subsequently patched up with his first wife. Prateek lives with his maternal grandparents.

Awards and nominations[link]

• 1994: nomination: Filmfare Best Villain Award for Dalaal

Selected filmography[link]

Priti Sapru (Punjabi: ਪ੍ਰੀਤੀ ਸਪਰੂ), also spelled as Preeti Sapru, is a noted actress of the Punjabi cinema. She has given a number of Punjabi hits including Nimmo, Yaari Jat Di Qurbani Jatt Di and more with Veerendra, Gurdas Maan & Raj Babbar. Her work was the centre of a film festival in 2003 ^[1]

Personal life[link]

She was born to a family of Kashmiri origin(settled in Punjab) in Bombay, India. Famous Bollywood Supporting character actor D. K. Sapru aka Sapru was her father and actor Tej Sapru is her brother. Actor Jeevan from the Bollywood era of 1950s and 1960s was her uncle and actor Kiran Kumar (real name Kiran Dhar) is her cousin. She did her schooling from St. Joseph's High School, Juhu, Bombay.^[2]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Priti Sapru at the Internet Movie Database

Om Puri
Puri at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival
Born	Om Rajesh Puri (1950-10-18) 18 October 1950 (age 61) Ambala, Haryana, India
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1976 – present
Spouse	Seema Kapoor (1996–2009, divorced) Nandita Puri

Om Puri (Hindi: ओम पुरी born 18 October 1950) is an Indian actor who has appeared in both mainstream Indian films and art films. His credits also include appearances in British and American films. He has received an honorary OBE.

Early life[link]

Puri was born in Ambala, Haryana. He graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India. He is also an alumnus of the 1973 class of National School of Drama where Naseeruddin Shah was a co-student.^[1]

Career[link]

Puri has worked in numerous Indian films and in many films produced in the United Kingdom and the United States. He made his film debut in the 1976 film Ghashiram Kotwal, based on a Marathi play of the same name. He has claimed that he was paid "peanuts" for his best work.^[2] He has collaborated with Amrish Puri as well as Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil in art films such as Bhavni Bhavai (1980), Sadgati (1981), Ardh Satya (1982), Mirch Masala (1986) and Dharavi (1992).

He has been active in cinema. He was critically acclaimed for his performances in many unconventional roles such as a victimized tribal in Aakrosh (1980) (a film in which he spoke only during flash-back sequences); Jimmy's manager in Disco Dancer (1982); a police inspector in Ardh Satya (1982), where he revolts against life-long social, cultural and political persecution and for which he got the National Film Award for Best Actor; the leader of a cell of Sikh militants in Maachis (1996); as a tough cop again in the commercial film Gupt in 1997; and as the courageous father of a martyred soldier in Dhoop (2003).

In 1999, Puri acted in a Kannada movie A.K. 47 as a strict police officer who tries to keep the city safe from the underworld — it became a huge commercial hit. Puri's acting in the movie is very memorable. He has rendered his own voice for the Kannada dialogues. In the same year, he starred in the successful British comedy film East is East, where he played a first-generation Pakistani immigrant in the north of England, struggling to come to terms with his far more westernised children.

Om Puri in 2009

Puri had a cameo in the highly acclaimed film Gandhi (1982, directed by Richard Attenborough). In the mid-1990s, he diversified to play character roles in mainstream Hindi cinema, where his roles are more tuned to mass audiences than film critics. He became known internationally by starring in many British films such as My Son the Fanatic (1997), East Is East (1999) and The Parole Officer (2001). He appeared in Hollywood films including City of Joy (1992), opposite Patrick Swayze; Wolf (1994) alongside Jack Nicholson; and The Ghost and the Darkness (1996) opposite Val Kilmer. In 2007, he appeared as General Zia-ul-Haq in Charlie Wilson's War, which stars Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts.

He has worked in Hindi television serials like Kakkaji Kaheen (1988) (roughly meaning "Uncle says") as a paan-chewing 'Kakkaji', which was a parody on politicians, and Mr. Yogi (1989) as a suave 'Sutradhaar' who enjoys pulling the protagonist's leg. These two serials underlined Om Puri's versatility as a comedian. He received critical acclaim for him performance in Govind Nihalani's television film Tamas (1987) based on a Hindi novel of the same name. He essayed comic roles in Hindi films like Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro which reached a cult status, followed by Chachi 420 (1997), Hera Pheri (2000), Chor Machaye Shor (2002) and Malamaal Weekly (2006).

His more recent Hindi film roles include Singh Is Kinng, Mere Baap Pehle Aap and Billu. Puri was seen in the role of Mohammad Ali Kasuri in Road to Sangam (2009). In 2010, he appeared in The Hangman. In 2011 he was in the Indian action movie Don 2.

He has also worked in Aahat TV Series in some episodes during second season which was aired between 2004-2005 on Sony channel.

Controversy[link]

A breach of privilege notice was issued against Om Puri in the Parliament of India for allegedly making derogatory remarks against the politicians during the fast carried out by Anna Hazare for Jan Lokpal Bill at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi in August 2011.^[3]

Partial filmography[link]