He is the youngest of four siblings in a family consisting of two elder brothers, Satyanarayana Rao & Nageshwara Rao and a sister, Aswath Balubhai. After his father’s retirement from work in 1956, the family moved to the suburb of Hanumantha nagar in Bangalore and built a house there. When he was nine years old, he lost his mother.

Upon completion of his school education, Rajinikanth performed various jobs in the cities of Bangalore and Madras, including that of a coolie and carpenter, and finally ended up being recruited in the Bangalore Transport Service (BTS) as a bus conductor. He began to take part in stage plays after Kannada playwright Topi Muniappa offered him a chance to act in one of his mythological plays. During the time, he came across an advertisement issued by the newly formed Madras Film Institute which offered acting courses.

Though his family was not fully supportive of his decision to join the institute, his friend and co-worker Raj Bahadur motivated him to join the institute and financially supported him during this phase. During his stay at the institute, he was performing in a stage play and got noticed by Tamil film director K. Balachander. The director advised him to learn to speak Tamil, a recommendation that Rajinikanth quickly followed.

Around 1940, while still in his teens and after an altercation with his father, Dilip Kumar left home for Pune. With the help of an Iranian cafe owner, and an elderly Anglo-Indian couple, Kumar met a canteen contractor Taj Mohammad Shah, an acquaintance of his father from Peshawar days. Without letting on his family antecedents, he got the job on the merit of his knowledge of good written and spoken English.

He managed to set up a sandwich stall at the army club and when the contract ended he headed home to Bombay having saved Rs. 5000. In 1942, anxious to start some venture to help out his father with household finances, he met Dr. Masani at Churchgate Station, who asked him to accompany him to Bombay Talkies, in Malad. Here he met actress Devika Rani, owner of Bombay Talkies, who asked him to sign up with the company on a pay of Rs. 1250 per year. Here he met actor Ashok Kumar who was to influence his acting style telling him to act “natural”.

He also met Sashadhar Mukherjee, and both these people became very close to Kumar over the years. Initially, Kumar helped out in the story-writing and scripting department because of his proficiency in Urdu language. Devika Rani requested to change his name from Yousuf to Dilip Kumar, and later cast him in a lead role for the film Jwar Bhata (1944), which marked Dilip Kumar’s entry into the Hindi film industry.

 

Dev Anand spent his early years in Gharota village Gurdaspur. He did his schooling till matriculation from Sacred Heart School, Dalhousie, (then in Punjab) and went to college Dharamsala before going to Lahore to study. Later Dev completed BA degree in English Literature from the Government College, Lahore in British India.

After completing BA degree in English Literature from the Government College, Lahore (then in British India, now in Pakistan),Dev Anand left his hometown for Bombay in the early 1940s. He began his career in the military censor’s office at Churchgate, for a monthly salary of Rs. 165.

Later he joined as a clerk in an accountancy firm for a salary of Rs. 85. He joined his older brother, Chetan, as a member of the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA). Dev Anand aspired to become a performer after seeing Ashok Kumar’s performance in films like Achhut Kanya and Kismet.

Irani was born on 2 December 1959, in Mumbai. He finished his schooling in St. Mary’s School, Mumbai. He is a graduate of Mithibai College in Mumbai.

After his polytechnic diploma course, he joined the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower and worked there as a waiter and room service staff.Thereafter, he joined his mother to run their ancestral bakery shop between Novelty and Apsara Cinema in South Mumbai.Irani turned to photography in 1987 and continued until he became an actor.

Irani began his acting career in theatre and moved to film in 2000. Irani gained attention for his role in the 2003 comedy Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. He later appeared in Lage Raho Munna Bhai for which he received several IIFA award nominations and in 3 Idiots opposite Aamir Khan which earned him a Filmfare Award and a Star Screen Award for Best Actor in a Villainous Role.

Acting had been a passion to Boman even during school and college days inspired by his great friend Mahan Shri Chandan kr. Singh. He trained under acting coach Hansraj Siddhia from 1981 to 1983 and adopted professional acting methods inspired by Chandan Singh. Irani preferred British theatre, and he soon developed different accents.

Irani’s mentor was Alyque Padamsee — the veteran theatre actor best known for his role as Mohammad Ali Jinnah in Gandhi. He was introduced to Padamsee by Shiamak Davar. Irani’s earliest theatrical appearance was in Roshni where he played a cameo at the Regional Theatre in Versova. He followed this up with serials like Family Ties and Mahatma vs Gandhi, playing Gandhi after the role was turned down by Darshan Jariwala. His most illustrious play till date has been I am not Bajirao which ran for 10 years.

He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from Gurukul Kangri Vishwavidyalaya,Haridwar. Following this, he worked as a chemist in Vadodara for a year, before leaving for Delhi in search for a new job. Once in Delhi, he was instantly drawn into acting after watching a play, and in pursuit to secure admission at National School of Drama (NSD) in New Delhi, he acted in over ten plays with a group of friends, to fulfill one of the criteria for admission.

After graduating from NSD, he moved to Mumbai. In 2004, which was one of the worst years of his struggle, he couldn’t pay any rent. He asked an NSD senior if he could stay with him. The senior allowed him to share his apartment in Goregaon if he was willing to cook meals for him.

Nawazuddin made his Bollywood debut in 1999, with a small role in Aamir Khan starrer,Sarfarosh.After that, he played a messenger in the movie Jungle; later he hung out at film studios and shootings but only got stereotypical roles. He shared screen along with Sunil Dutt and Sanjay Dutt in Munnabhai MBBS in the opening scenes where he tries to pick the pocket of Sunil Dutt. After moving to Mumbai he tried to get work in television serials, but did not achieve much success. He did a short film The Bypass in 2003, where he appeared with Irrfan Khan.Beyond that between 2002–05, he was largely out of work, and lived in a flat he shared with four other people, and survived by conducting occasional acting workshops.

His appearance in Anurag Kashyap’s Black Friday (2007) paved way for other powerful roles. His first lead role in a feature film was as the wedding singer Chakku in Prashant Bhargava’s Patang (shot in 2007-2008), which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and Tribeca Film Festival, for which Nawazuddin’s natural performance has been praised by world-renowned film critic Roger Ebert, a role which ‘transformed his acting style’. In 2009, he appeared in a cameo role in hit song “emotional atyachar” in the movie Dev D in his moniker as Rangila along with his duo Rasila (known together as Patna ke Presley). Nawazuddin was noticed in the film “New York”. However it was his role of a journalist in Aamir Khan Productions’s Peepli Live (2010), that first gave him recognition as an actor.

After completing his schooling, Hooda moved to Melbourne in 1995 and received a bachelor’s degree in marketing and a master’s degre.e in business management and human resource management. During that period, he worked in a Chinese restaurant, a car-wash, waited tables and drove a taxi for two years. In 2000, Hooda returned to India and worked in the marketing department of an airline. He subsequently started modelling and working in amateur theatre in Delhi. While rehearsing for his first play he received a call from director Mira Nair, who wanted him to audition for a part.

Hooda made his acting debut in Mira Nair’s film Monsoon Wedding (2001), playing a non-resident Indian from Australia. Although the film was a critical and commercial success, Hooda waited four years for a second project. In the meantime, he worked in theatre and appeared in television commercials to support himself financially. He also attended and assisted an imagination and improvisation workshop conducted by Naseeruddin Shah at the National School of Drama in New Delhi. In 2005, Hooda was cast as the male lead in Ram Gopal Varma’s gritty gangster film D. His performance in the film received positive reviews.

Mehra started off by selling vacuum cleaners for Eureka Forbes.He established Flicks Motion Picture Company Private Limited in 1986, starting his career as an advertisement film maker. He has directed scores of television commercials for Indian and international clients such as Coke, Pepsi, Toyota, American Express and BPL. He has also directed music videos such as Aby Baby starring Amitabh Bachchan. He then transited from being an ad-film maker to a feature film maker.

In June 2001, his company released its first full-length feature film titled Aks, starring Amitabh Bachchan. Aks was moderately successful but was critically acclaimed for Bachchan’s performances in the film.

His next release titled Rang De Basanti was released in 2006 and starred Aamir Khan and Soha Ali Khan. The film was a huge hit in India and did very well overseas. He received much acclaim for the film, winning Best Director awards at the 2006 Filmfare Award and National Film Award as well as a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. The film was also officially chosen as India’s entry to the Oscars.

Financial circumstances forced Warsi to start work as a door-to-door cosmetics salesman at age 17. Later he worked in a photo lab. Meanwhile, he had a keen interest in dancing and received an offer to join Akbar Sami’s Dance group in Mumbai, which started his dancing and choreographing career. He also assisted Mahesh Bhatt in Thikana (1987) and Kaash (1987).

Then in 1991, he won the Indian dance competition, followed by the fourth prize in the Modern Jazz category in 1992 World Dance championship, London, at the age of 21. Soon, he started his own dance studio, ‘Awesome’ with that money and also formed a dance troupe. It was here, his future wife, Maria Goretti, a St. Andrew’s College student joined him, before she became a VJ. He was also associated with English theatre group in Mumbai, choreographing shows for Bharat Dabholkar and got an opportunity to choreograph the title track for the film, Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja (1993). During this time he was offered a role by Jaya Bachchan for Tere Mere Sapne.

In 2003, he rose to fame when he starred as sidekick to Munna Bhai (Sanjay Dutt) in Rajkumar Hirani’s comedy Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. which turned out to be a huge box office success and gained him much critical acclaim and a nomination at the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor. He won the Zee Cine Award for Best Actor in a Comic Role for the same.

As a child, he worked in Bombay films like Kismet. He later had a number of odd jobs, working as a table tennis teacher to Meena Kumari and as a driver for director P. L. Santoshi. Santoshi’s son, Rajkumar Santoshi, would later cast him in the film Andaz Apna Apna.

After getting married and becoming a father, he decided to act to earn a better living starting with a small break as a killer in the film CID. He started off by doing small, unnoticed roles in films like the peanut seller in Do Bigha Zameen and Pyaasa. He later went on to act in lead roles, but he was appreciated for his comedy, some of which was in the Hyderabad region’s Urdu accent.