Urmila Matondkar

Urmila Matondkar :(born on February 4, 1974 in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India) is an award-winning popular Indian Bollywood actress.

She was earlier known for her bold image and her versatile roles in films like Rangeela (1996) and Satya (1998). She was perhaps one of the most famous sex symbols of the 1990s. In the 2000s, she went on to reveal her psychological acting abilities, and has delivered a range of critically acclaimed performances. She received various Best Villain nominations for her role as an obsessive lover in Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya (2001), and won her first Filmfare Award under the Best Performer category for her role as a ghost-possessed in Bhoot (2003). She was highly praised for her roles as a merciless avenger in Ek Hasina Thi (2004) and a caring daughter in Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara (2005).

Thus, today she is considered to be a serious actress with many critical acclaimed movies to her name.

Career
She started her career as a child artist; perhaps the best known of her early movies is the 1983 Masoom. She made her film debut as an adult actress with the film Narasimha along with Sunny Deol. She also starred in the fantasy film Chamatkar along with Shahrukh Khan in 1992.

She went on to frequently collaborate with film director Ram Gopal Verma. Her first film with him was Drohi in 1992. Since then, she has starred in many subsequent RGV pictures, the most notable of them was her first major hit, the 1995 musical Rangeela. She played a star-struck dancer, and received her first nomination for a Filmfare Best Actress Award for her performance in the film. Another RGV projects were Daud (1997), Satya (1999), Kaun (1999), Mast (2000), Jungle (2000), Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya (2001), Bhoot (2003), and Ek Hasina Thi (2004).

Her most notable films in the 1990s since Rangeela have been Judaai alongside Sridevi and Anil Kapoor, and for which she received various award nominations for Best Supporting Actress and Satya where she proved her strong dramatic abilities.

During the 2000s, Matondkar revealed strong, dramatic and psychological features in her roles, and delivered a myriad of critically acclaimed performances. She won favorable reviews for her role as an obsessive lover in Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya (2001), and received various Best Villain nominationsa for her performance.

In 2003, she was part of several projects. She played the role of a north Indian girl in the background of the 1947 India partition in the critically acclaimed Pinjar. She also played the title role in Khalid Mohammed's drama Tehzeeb, starring along Shabana Azmi, however, her most notable film of the year was Bhoot, a horror movie where she enacted a ghost-possessed woman. Her performance in the film was much appreciated by critics and audiences and she won her first Filmfare Award under the Best Performer category, as well as various Best Actress awards at different award ceremonies suce as Star Screen Awards, Zee Cine Awards, Bollywood Movie Awards. She also received the national honour Rajiv Gandhi Award for the film, as a recognition to her achievement in Bollywood.

In 2004, Matondkar was unanimously praised for her role as a merciless avenger in Ek Hasina Thi along with Saif Ali Khan, and again was nominated for her performance in the film. She tried her hand with a horror film one more time, playing the title role in the film Naina (2005). Her performance a the caring daughter of Anupam Kher in the art film Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara (2005) was praised and she won the Bollywood Movie Award - Best Actress. Mantondkar has been recognized as one of India's most versatile actresses for these performances.

Apart from holding a successful acting career, she is considered to be an outstanding dancer and has been a featured performer in many Bollywood "item numbers". Perhaps her best-known item number is the Chamma Chamma sequence from the 1998 China Gate. A brief Westernized version of Chamma Chamma appeared in Baz Luhrman's 2001 film musical, Moulin Rouge! -- minus Urmila. Other hit numbers include the opening song of Company, Aaiye Aajaye from the hit film Lajja. She was signed to perform the item song in the Ram Gopal Verma remake of the classic 1975 film Sholay titled Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag. She played the role originally played by the legendary actress Helen.

Recently she has even lent her voice for Asha Bhonsle's album Asha and Friends Vol 1 (2007) for the duet song "Mehbooba Dilruba". Important note is that Bhosle sang the maximum number of songs in the 90's and the 2000s, for Urmila. She is also rumoured to play the vamp in the movie Do Bahnon ki Kahani which is a sort of a remake on the Korean thriller mystery movie Janghwa, Hongryeon. This would be the third time she plays villain in a movie after Kaun and Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya.

Awards

Won

* 2002 - Bollywood Movie Award - Most Sensational Actress - Pyar Tune Kya Kiya
* 2003 - Filmfare Critics Award Best Performance - Bhoot.
* 2003 - 1st Annual Apsara Awards, Best Actress - Bhoot.
* 2003 - Bollywood Movie Award - Best Actress - Bhoot.
* 2003 - Zee Cine Award Best Actor- Female - Bhoot.
* 2003 - Star Screen Award Best Actress - Bhoot.
* 2003 - Rajiv Gandhi Award - achievement in Bollywood.[1]
* 2006 - Bollywood Movie Award - Best Actress - Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara.

Nominated

* 1995 - Filmfare Best Actress Award - Rangeela
* 1997 - Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award - Judaai
* 1998 - Filmfare Best Actress Award - Satya
* 2001 - Filmfare Best Villain Award - Pyar Tune Kya Kiya.
* 2003 - 1st Annual Apsara Awards, Best Actress - Pinjar.
* 2003 - Filmfare Best Actress Award - Bhoot
* 2004 - Filmfare Best Actress Award - Ek Hasina Thi
* 2004 - Zee Cine Award Best Actor- Female - Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara.

Urmila Matondkar