page_title: Dimple Kapadia
section_title: Media image and artistry
hierarchical_section_title: Dimple Kapadia / Media image and artistry
caption_attribution_description: English: Bollywood actress Dimple Kapadia during an event
context_page_description: Dimple Kapadia is an Indian actress who predominantly appears in Hindi films. She was discovered at age 14 by Raj Kapoor, who cast her in the title role of his teen romance Bobby, to critical and commercial success. In that same year, she married the Indian actor Rajesh Khanna and retired from acting. Kapadia returned to films in 1984, two years after her separation from Khanna. Her comeback film Saagar was released a year later, and gained her wide public recognition. She won the Filmfare Award for Best Actress twice for Bobby and Saagar. She went on to establish herself as one of the leading actresses of Hindi cinema in the 1980s.
  While her initial roles often relied on her perceived beauty and sex appeal, Kapadia was keen to avoid being stereotyped and expand her range. She subsequently took on more serious parts in a range of film genres, from mainstream to parallel cinema, and received acclaim for her performances in such films as Kaash, Drishti, Lekin..., and Rudaali. For playing a professional mourner in the last of these, she won the National Film Award for Best Actress and the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress.
context_section_description: When Kapadia made her comeback to movies, she faced constant comparison to her Bobby days, and struggled to be taken seriously as an actress. According to Jyotika Virdi, the author of the book The Cinematic Imagination, while Kapadia's trajectory is different from that of other female Hindi film stars, she "turned every disadvantage to her advantage". Virdi mentioned Kapadia's forthright manner as having a major contribution to her career: "Speaking candidly to the press, she and the reporters plotted her life's narrative from the innocent teenager snared into an impossible marriage to the emergence of a mature 'woman with experience.'" Kapadia is known for her assertive and moody nature; during the making of Janbaaz (1986), the director Feroz Khan remarked that he had never met a woman with her levels of "pent-up aggression". The journalist Bhawana Somaaya, who conducted a series of interviews with her during the 1980s, stated: "She's a strange bundle of contradictions. Her moods change in a jiffy." According to some critics, this approach has sometimes been at the cost of professional opportunities as "her unpredictable nature and moods have distanced many well wishers". In reply to this, she said: "I am moody by nature. But I have never consciously hurt anyone."
  Virdi noted Kapadia for "fighting her way to the top" by committing to serious and challenging work, with her parts in Aitbaar (1985), Kaash (1987) and Drishti (1990) being characters where she "drew from the well of her own experience". The author Dinesh Raheja believed that Kapadia's involvement in art films happened at a time when she was no longer willing to play the "pretty prop in hero-oriented films", arguing that her new choices "honed Dimple's talent for lending fine striations to complex emotions". Speaking of the same, Mahesh Bhatt commended her for not turning into "a victim of her own success" by refusing to appear in films of strictly commercial value. According to Govind Nihalani, the director of Drishti (1990), Kapadia has a genuine interest in serious work that would challenge her talent and realise her potential. Similar sentiments were shared by Shashi Kapoor, who said she had always been eager to act in quality films. She explained her involvement in independent films as a conscious decision to experiment in different cinema and prove her abilities. When questioned about the hiatus she assumed after Rudaali at her career peak, she spoke of the space she needed, stating that generally "career has always been secondary" to her. Due to her infrequent work ever since, as manifest in numerous gaps between her screen appearances, she has gained a reputation for being selective about her work. She attributed this to the lack of worthy offers and the "huge effort" expended in film acting, which consumes time otherwise spent for her family and private life. Guided by her own judgement, Kapadia normally commits to a project without seeking advice, and often willingly works with young or first-time directors, finding their enthusiasm and creativity beneficial to both the film and her performance.
  Kapadia's screen image has been characterized in terms of her perceived beauty and sex appeal. The Times of India wrote in reference her role in Saagar: "Dimple was a vision of lush beauty; quite the forbidden fruit, rising from the ocean like Aphrodite emerging from the waves and surf." Speaking of her post-comeback screen persona, the critic Khalid Mohamed observed, "Her arsenal comprised, among other elements, expressive cognac eyes, a nuanced, resonating voice skilled in Hindustani dialogue delivery, easy body language, and that seductive toss of her auburn hair." Mrinal Sen, who directed her in Antareen (1993), compared her to Sophia Loren and described her face as "a landscape of desolation". Anil Kapoor, her costar of Janbaaz, hailed her as "the most beautiful woman on screen since Madhubala". According to Dinesh Raheja, Kapadia's casting in Dil Chahta Hai (2001) and Leela (2002), in which she played middle-aged women who are the object of younger men'
caption: Kapadia at the Sansui Television Awards in 2008
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