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Raakhee
Rakhee Gulzar at Neena Singh's art exhibition
Born	Rakhee Mazumdar (1947-08-15) August 15, 1947 (age 64) Ranaghat, Nadia district, West Bengal
Years active	1967–present
Spouse	Gulzar

Raakhee (Hindi: राखी, Bengali: রাখি মজুমদার) (born 15 August 1947) is an Indian film actress, who has primarily appeared in Hindi films, as well as several Bengali films.^[1] She is popularly known as Raakhee Gulzar after her marriage to lyricist-director Gulzar. In four decades of acting, Raakhee won three Filmfare Awards and a National Film Award, among others. At the Filmfare, Raakhee has been nominated 16 times (8 for Best Actress and 8 for Best Supporting Actress), making her the overall most-nominated performer in the female acting categories.

Early life[link]

Rakhee was born in Ranaghat, in the Nadia district of West Bengal, in the early hours of 15 August 1947. She received her early education in a local girls' school. Her father, who had a flourishing shoe business, was uprooted from his native village in East Pakistan, modern-day Bangladesh, during the partition and thereafter he settled in West Bengal.^[2][3]

While still a teenager, Raakhee had an arranged marriage to Bengali film director Ajay Biswas, which ended shortly thereafter.

Career[link]

Raakhee won rave reviews for her first Bengali film, Badhu Baran, 1967 in Calcutta at the age of 20, after which she was offered the lead role in her first Hindi film, Rajshri Productions' Jeevan Mrityu with Dharmendra in 1970. It went on to become a big hit including its song "Jhilmil sitaron ka aangan hoga..."^[4]

She again shot to fame in the 1971 film Sharmilee, in which she played a double role opposite Shashi Kapoor. Consequently she established herself as a popular and major Hindi heroine acting with the best co-stars and directors, in several blockbusters like Heera Panna (1973), Daag (1973), Blackmail (1973) and Tapasya (1976).

To her great advantage she formed an extremely popular romantic pairing with leading Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan. They went on to star in no less than eight hit films: Kabhie Kabhie (1976), Muqaddar Ka Sikander (1977), Kasme Vaade (1978), Trishul (1978), Kaala Patthar (1979), Jurmana (1979), Barsaat Ki Ek Raat (1981), and Bemisal (1982). With her main focus on good roles rather than star status, Raakhee raised eyebrows when she did not hesitate to play Amithab's elder sister-in-law in Shaan (1980) and even his mother in Shakti (1982), when their romantic pairing was still at the height of its popularity. She also played his dead mother in Lawaaris (1981). She acted in other Bengali films such as Paroma (1984) to great acclaim.

Towards the mid-1980s and 1990s she played the elderly mother—usually a bereaved and bitter widow whose husband died at the hands of ruthless villains—or supporting roles in films such as Ram Lakhan (1989), Baazigar (1993), Khalnayak (1993), Karan Arjun (1995), Border (1997), Soldier (1998) and Baadshah (1999).

Her last film was Shubho Mahurat in 2003, for which she won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress. She has since retired from the film industry.

Personal life[link]

In her second marriage, she married film director, poet and lyricist, Gulzar. The couple had a daughter, Meghna Gulzar (Bosky); when their daughter was only one year old, they separated but never divorced. Meghna Gulzar grew up with her father and, after completing her graduation in films from New York University, went on to become a director of films like Filhaal, Just Married and Dus Kahaniyaan,^[5] and authored the biography of her father Gulzar, in 2004.^[6]

At one point, Raakhee stayed in her bungalow, "Muktangan," on Sarojini Road in Khar, Mumbai, later she sold off the property and moved to an apartment two buildings away, though the new high rise is still called by the same name, as she had wished. These days she mostly stays in the Panvel farmhouse on Mumbai outskirts.^[7][8]

Awards and nominations[link]

Filmography[link]