Mithun Chakraborty

Gourang Chakraborty, better known by his stage name Mithun Chakraborty (Bengali: মিঠুন চক্রবর্তী); informally referred to as Mithun Da, is an Indian film actor, singer, producer, writer, social worker, entrepreneur and a Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament. He is the recipient of three National Film Awards. He made his acting debut with the art house drama Mrigayaa (1976), for which he won his first National Film Award for Best Actor.

He began his career as a junior actor and went on to establish himself as one of the top lead actors in Bollywood. He is particularly recognized as one of the best "dancing-heroes" in Bollywood with his unique "Disco and Desi" fusion-style dancing that is immensely popular among the masses. Along with legendary actor Raj Kapoor, Chakraborty is hugely popular in Russia for his role as dancer Jimmy in the 1982 Bollywood film Disco Dancer. He later won two more National Film Awards for his performances in Tahader Katha (1992) & Swami Vivekananda (1998). Chakraborty has appeared in more than 350 films including Bengali, Oriya, Bhojpuri, Telugu and Punjabi pictures.

Padmini Kolhapure

Padmini Kolhapure (Marathi: पद्मिनी कोल्हापुरे; born 1 November 1965) is an Indian actress who appeared primarily in Bollywood films during the 1980s. She made her television debut portraying Pallavi Modi in the Sony Entertainment Television India series Ekk Nayi Pehchaan.

Early life

Padmini Kolhapure was born second among the three daughters of Pandharinath Kolhapure, a professional musician, by his wife Anupama Kolhapure. Her younger sisters are the former actress Tejaswini Kolhapure, and Shivangi Kapoor, wife of actor Shakti Kapoor and mother of actress Shraddha Kapoor.

Padmini's family belongs to the Gomantak Maratha Samaj, the major Devadasi community of Maharashtra state, whose ancestral vocation is the performing arts (singing and dancing). The family took the surname "Kolhapure" because they hailed from Kolhapur. Padmini's father, Pandharinath Kolhapure, was a talented vocalist and Veena player. He was the son of Master Krishna Rao (sometimes referred to as Krishnarao Kolhapure), an exponent of Natya Sangeet who had enjoyed the patronage of the Baroda Durbar. Pandharinath's mother was the sister of Master Deenanath Mangeshkar, and the natural sister of Balwantrao Abhisheki, the father of vocalist Jitendra Abhisheki. Thus, Padmini is a niece of legendary singers Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhonsle. Indeed, the two families has always enjoyed close ties. Master Krishna Rao and his brother-in-law Master Deenanath Mangeshkar, together with Chintamanrao Kolhatkar, had once founded their own theatre troupe known as "Balwant Mandali," which however met with only moderate success. Padmini's mother, Anupama Kolhapure, was born into a Konkani-speaking Saraswat Brahmin family belonging to Mangalore in Karnataka. She formerly used to work as ground staff with Air India.

Shammi Kapoor

Shammi Kapoor (born Shamsher Raj Kapoor; 21 October 1931 – 14 August 2011) was an Indian film actor and director. He was a prominent lead actor in Hindi cinema from the late 1950s until the early 1970s and also make a debut in Tamil cinema via 1992 blockbuster crime drama Amaran. He received the Filmfare Best Actor Award in 1968 for his performance in Brahmachari and Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor for Vidhaata in 1982.

Shammi Kapoor is hailed as one of the most entertaining lead actors that Hindi cinema has ever produced. He was one of the leading stars of Hindi cinema during the late 1950s, the 1960s and early '70s. He made his Hindi Film debut in 1953 with the film Jeevan Jyoti, and went on to deliver hits like Tumsa Nahin Dekha, Dil Deke Dekho, Singapore, Junglee, College Girl, Professor, China Town, Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya, Kashmir Ki Kali, Janwar, Teesri Manzil, An Evening in Paris, Bramhachari, Andaz and Sachaai.

Early life

He was given the name Shamsher Raj Kapoor at his birth in Bombay (now Mumbai) to film and theatre actor Prithviraj Kapoor and Ramsharni Kapoor (née Mehra). Shammi was the second of the three sons born to Prithviraj (the other two being Raj Kapoor and Shashi Kapoor, both successful Hindi Film actors).

Daata

Daata is a 1989 Hindi-language Indian feature film directed by Sultan Ahmed, starring Mithun Chakraborty, Shammi Kapoor, Padmini Kolhapure, Suresh Oberoi, Supriya Pathak, Pran, Amrish Puri, Ranjeet, Deepak Parashar, Shafi Inamdar, Saeed Jaffrey and Bharat Bhushan. This movie was AVERAGE in big cities but in small cities and in north India It was a big HIT. "DAATA" remains for Mithun Chakraborty's one of the best performances till date. The movie has one of the best bidaai song sung by Kishore Kumar "Baabul Ka Yeh Ghar"

Plot

Daata is an action film with Mithun Chakraborty and Padmini Kolhapure playing the lead roles, supported by Shammi Kapoor, Supriya Pathak, Pran, Prem Chopra, Deepak Parashar and Amrish Puri. Dinanath is a school-teacher in a small town in India, and lives with his wife, Kamla; daughter, Shanti; and son Kundan. He has published a book called "Daata" in which he has made reference to all major religions of the world, and is honored for this contribution by none other than the President of India through Education Minister, Raja Suraj Singh. He arranges the marriage of Shanti to the son of Gopaldas, when Gopaldas demands dowry he is unable to afford this, and states that he has given sufficient gold and jewelery to Shanti. The gold turns out to be fake, as a result the marriage is canceled, Shanti kills herself, Dinanath dies of a heart attack. His name tarnished, no one comes forward to help Kundan or his mother. Kundan decides to avenge his father's death by killing Gopaldas' son, as a result he becomes a bandit, joins a band of other bandits and is on the look-out to kill Gopaldas. The question remains is this what Dinanath had foreseen for his son - a life of a bandit, and death at the hands of the police?

Prem Chopra

Prem Chopra (born 23 September 1935) is an Indian actor in Hindi and Punjabi films. He has acted in 320 films over a span of over 50 years. He has a soft spoken diction despite being a villain in most films.

Personal life and education

Prem Chopra, the third of six children of Ranbirlal and Rooprani Chopra, a Punjabi Hindu family, was born on 23 September 1935, in Lahore. After the partition of India, his family moved to Shimla, where he was brought up. His father desired that Prem be a doctor or an Indian Administrative Services officer.

Prem Chopra completed his schooling and college from Shimla after his father, who was a government servant, got transferred there. He graduated from Punjab University. He took part in college dramatics enthusiastically. At his father's insistence, he completed his graduation and then went to Mumbai. Soon after he made his debut film, his mother was detected with mouth cancer and she died, leaving his then nine-year-old sister Anju to be looked after by his father and his four other brothers. The brothers had given warning to their respective wives that only if their sister is happy would they be happy and Prem considers his sister as his first daughter. Noted writer-director Lekh Tandon brought the proposal of Uma for marriage to Prem. Uma was the younger sister of the siblings Krishna Kapoor, Prem Nath and Rajendranath. The couple have three daughters, Rakita, Punita and Prerna Chopra. Rakita is married to film publicity designer Rahul Nanda. Punita owns a pre-school called Wind Chimes in Bandra, suburban Mumbai, and is married to singer and television actor Vikas Bhalla. Prerna is married to Bollywood actor Sharman Joshi. He resides in a duplex apartment in Pali Hill, Bandra in Mumbai.