Some Amazing and Interesting Facts about Bollywood Actresses of all times

Most recently I have added an article about 75+ interesting facts of Bollywood, related to actors,, musicians and other artists belonging to different generations. As that particular post was a bit lengthy, I thought of adding a new post, sharing a few more interesting facts about Bollywood female actors, who played either lead or character roles. To go through that interesting article, please use this link. You can read a few less-known facts about Bollywood actors/actresses as well. In this post, let me add a few more, related to Bollywood actresses only. Let me add, while I am preparing articles on biographies about Bollywood celebrities and other Indian personalities, I try to add at least 2 or 3 interesting fact about that particular celebrity. Please check those facts as well, if you are interested. Also read: Interesting facts about Bollywood actors.

1. Kaho Na Pyar Hai is the first uncredited role of actress Kareena Kapoor, a few months before her debut flick Refugee got released in 2000. She shot a few scenes for the movie, before she quit, and one such shot is kept in the film which was not edited out. 

2. Since Kareena’s debut film Refugee in 2000, Anu Malik composed songs of 5 Kareena movies in a row, and all her movies released in 2000 & 2001, except Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham. The other movies are Mujhe Kuch Kehna Hai, Yadein, Ajnabee and Asoka. In 2003 also, Anu Malik composed three of her films in a row – Khushi, Mein Prem Ki Diwani Hoon and LOC Kargil. He recorded maximum songs in Alka Yagnik’s voice, followed by Chithra and others.

3. Bollywood’s hit girl, Asha Parekh shares same birth year with first two superstars of Hindi cinema – Asha Parekh and Rajesh Khanna. The trio were born in 1942, best known for Quit India Movement. Interestingly she was also born in Gujarat, and was born on October 2, thus sharing birthday two great Indian leaders – Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri.

3. Actress Rakhee Gulzar was born exactly on the day of Indian Independence in 1947.

4. Katrina Kaif’s first three blockbuster hits after a series of flops – Namaste London, Singh is Kingg and Ajab Prem Ki Gazab Kahani holds almost the same story as well as climax including the wedding scene. 

5. Vidya Balan was the first Indian actress to receive National award for best actress for playing real-life film actress on screen. A male actor is still to get this honour, while Keerthi Suresh earned the honour in 2019 for Telugu film, Mahanadi, by essaying actress Savithri on screen. However a little credit goes to Shabana Azmi as well, for winning National award for Arth, the movie loosely based on the love affair between Mahesh Bhatt and Parveen Babi. Babi’s role was portrayed on screen by Smita Patel.

6. Lalitha Pawar played more than 700 character roles on screen in 7 decades, which is a Bollywood record. 

7. Urmila Matondkar played elder step-sister to Jugal Hasraj in highly acclaimed family drama, Masoom (1983). A decade later they played lead pair in Aa Gale Lag Ja (1994).

8. Bollywood top heroines like Sridevi, Dimple Kapadia, Rani Mukerji and Madhuri Dixit have romanced both father and son onscreen, though for different films. Among all male actors – Dharmendra & Sunny Deol duo leads the list. Other names are Amitabh Bachchan & Abhishek Bachchan (with Rani Mukerjee) and Vinod Khanna & Akshaye Khanna (with Madhuri Dixit).

9. Rani Mukerji is perhaps the only Bollywood actress to share onscreen kiss with both father and son onscreen (with Amitabh Bachchan in Black and with Abhishek Bachchan in Bunty Aur Babli).

10. Vidya Balan gave more than 40 screen tests and as many as 17 makeup shoots for her debut movie, Parineeta. Though she worked in a few TV serials and ads in the 1990s, and also appeared in popular music videos, it took her a lot of struggles to get the first break, after which she never looked back. Interestingly she was signed for numerous Malayalam films, but none of them took off and she was considered ‘bad luck’. She had almost decided to settle with marriage life at the age of 25+ before she got the dream role in Parineeta. 

11. Actress Babita has romanced both her future husband Randhir Kapoor and his uncle Shashi Kapoor onscreen. Similarly actress Neetu Singh has romanced her future husband Rishi Kapoor, brother-in-law Randhir Kapoor and his uncle Shashi Kapoor onscreen before she tied knot and retired from films. 

12. Similarly Saif Ali Khan has romanced both his wife Kareena Kapoor and his future sister-in-law Karishna Kapoor onscreen, following ‘Kapoor tradition’. 

13. After doing several hit films with Anil Kapoor in the 1980s and 1990s, Sridevi married Anil Kapoor’s elder brother in 1996, and said ‘Judai’ to Bollywood. 

14. Parineeti Chopra was All-India topper for 12th standard exams.

15. Deepika Padukone is the first female actress to enter the elite 500-crore club. Interestingly, except Shah Rukh Khan she has never worked with the biggest stars of Bollywood. She was paired with Akshay Kumar once, and the movie, Chandini Chowk to China was a big flop. They worked together in Dezi Boys, though not as pairs.

16. Similarly the extremely talented and National award winning actresses of Bollywood, Tabu and Vidya Balan have never done a full-fledged lead role opposite Khans or Hrithik Roshan.

17. Many beauty pageant winners like Sushmita Sen, Aishwarya Rai and Priyanka Chopra started their film journey with Tamil films before joining Bollywood. Yukta Mookhey made a cameo appearance as herself in a Tamil film song, before making her Bollywood debut. Diya Mirza appeared as an extra in a Tamil film song of A. R. Rahman before winning Miss. Asia Pacific crown and joining movies. In fact Lara Dutt’s first signed movie was from Tamil, which had a delayed release (after Andaz had a theatric release. 

18. Only two Bollywood actresses have won National award for best actress for a double role – Sharmila Tagore for Mausam and Kangana Ranaut for Tanu Weds Manu Returns, and none from male actors. However Kamal Hassan won the same for Indian, which was dubbed to Hindi as Hindustani.

19. Priyanka Chopra essayed 12 characters representing zodiac signs in ‘What’s Your Rashee?’, which is highest among all actors.

20. Kangana Ranaut is the only actress to receive Filmfare critics’ choice award for a dual role, and she got it for ‘Tanu Weds Manu Returns‘.

21. Nutan for Milan (1967) is the first actress to win Filmfare award for best actress for playing a dual role. Waheeda Rehman won it the following year for 1968 movie, Neel Kamal. This award was first won by a male actor in 1971 (Rajesh Khanna for Saccha Jhoota)

22. Actresses Madhabala and Meena Kumari, who were contemporaries in the classic era of Bollywood share many things in common in their personal and professional life, including strained marriage relationship, battle with disease and early death in 30s. Read it in detail here. I have made a lengthy list.