Urmila Matondkar

In addition to establishing herself among the elite female actresses in Bollywood with her versatility and challenging roles, Urmila has also been very active with her humanitarian works in the past decade. She is especially passionate about various issues faced by women and children.

Urmila Matondkar was born on February 4, 1974, in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Her father Shivinder Singh was a lecturer and her mother Rukshana Sultana was a homemaker. Urmila has an elder sister, Mamta, an ex-actress, a younger sister named Pooja, and an elder brother Kedar, who has worked in the Indian Air Force as an Aircraft Maintenance Technician.

She graduated from the Pune University with a degree in philosophy; she is also an avid reader and a swimmer.

Urmila Matondkar started her career in the film industry as a child artist back in 1977. She played a minor role in a Marathi film titled ‘Zaakol’ in 1980 and made her Bollywood debut the same year in the drama movie ‘Kalyug’.

She worked in many Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, and Malayalam language films over the next couple of years and then made her appearance in Shekhar Kapoor’s ‘Masoom', a role that earned her a lot of positive reviews from the critics. She was aged nine at that time.

Urmila made her debut as a leading actress in the film ‘Narsimha’. Then she appeared alongside Shah Rukh Khan in the fantasy movie ‘Chamatkar’ which became a huge success in 1989.

She continued receiving important roles in the coming years and landed a role alongside superstar Kamal Haasan in the film ‘Chanakyan’, a blockbuster Malayalam film. She worked extensively with director Ram Gopal Varma in some films which were mostly thrillers.

She featured alongside upcoming superstar Aamir Khan in ‘Rangeela’ in 1995 and witnessed her career reaching new heights with the success of the movie. The film brought her to the center of all attention and she established herself as the leading lady of Bollywood in the coming years.

In 1995 Urmila Matondkar acted in the film ‘Rangeela’ along with rising superstar Aamir Khan as the lead heroine. ‘Rangeela’ was a superhit, both commercially and critically. The film racked up a whooping Rs.15.05 crore (US$2.3 million) at the box office. The movie was nominated for 12 categories at the 41st Filmfare Awards, including a Best Actress nomination for Urmila.

In 1998, she gave a poignant performance in the critically acclaimed movie ‘Satya’. She again won a Filmfare nomination in the best actress category. ‘Satya’ not only made her one of the most successful actresses in Bollywood but also gave her the chance to prove her versatile acting skills.