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Urmila Matondkar
(Filmography)
(Reviews)
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Born Feb 04
Remember the young girl with curly locks sitting on a toy horse with her younger sister singing Lakdi ki katti kaati pe ghoda, ghode ki doom pe jo maara hothoda, from Masoom? Her innocent looks had absolutely mesmerized movie buffs and even filmmaker Shekhar Kapur. She was none other than Maharashtrian mulgi Urmila Matondkar. A simple girl hailing from middle class family, Urmila had always nursed a dream to be an actress. When Kapur offered a role to play an elder sister to Jugal Hansraj she lapped up immediately. "I was very curious to see how a film was shot," she said. But films took a back seat for a while when Urmila completed school and stepped into college. After graduating in Arts in English major, Urmila began to pursue her dream once again. And when director N. Chandra approached her to play the lead in Narsimha opposite newcomer Ravi Behl, she accepted it immediately.
Predictably the film bombed at the box-office and Urmila Matondkar was practically written off. Even films like Drohi and Chamatkar could not salvage her sinking career. The turn of events were so bad that even co-stars refused to work with her. Saif Ali Khan who himself was trying to piece his career during those days, refused to do Aa Gale Lag Jaa with her. The producer finally zeroed in on the delicate Jugal Hansraj to play the lead in the film and that itself raked up another controversy. How could a guy who had played her brother in Masoom be her lover in the film? However when released the film failed to create any kind of stir at the box-office. Urmila Matondkar was back to square one trying to find her bearings once again. She desperately needed a hit... some way... some how!
Director Ramgopal Varma, who made his debut as a director with Shiva, signed the Masoom gal to play the lead in Rangeela. The film had Aamir Khan and Jackie Shroff has her co-stars. What's more the film had music by AR Rehman the ace music director. This was the only film that Urmila had pinned her hopes heavily on. Rangeela stood to be her last chance. It was either do or die situation for her.
Rangeela hit theatres in Mumbai and was declared to be the biggest hit of 1995. It not only breathed a new lease of life in Urmila's dead career but also brought over a complete change in her image as an actress. Designer Manish Malhotra set a trend. He became the most in demand designer amongst other actresses too.
Rangeela brought her dozen offers. While film with other directors was considered to be nothing unusual but a lot of eyebrows were raised when mentor Ramgopal Varma repeatedly cast her in his films. Tongues wagged when he replaced Mahima Chaudhary with Urmila Matondkar in Satya. After Satya practically all Ramgopal Varma films had Urmila Matondkar in the lead including Daud, Kaun, Mast. She was permanent fixation in his films till much recently when it was rumoured that the director and his muse had a fall out. There were also talks about how Urmila was upset for not having been cast in Company. When she saw the film at a special preview that Ramu had organized for her, the film had her eating her hand out, she loved it that much and insisted that Ramu make her part of it no matter what the cost. Ergo the title song where one saw Matondkar gyrate to Kaun like expressions. But Urmila Matondkar always maintained that she and Ramgopal Varma had always been professionals and the link up was the imagination of the media.
Varma and she finally patched up and he cast her in Bhoot. Besides, Urmila has also bagged Chandraprakash Dwivedi's Pinjar based on the Pakistan-India partition and Ek Hasina Thi with Saif Ali Khan. Yes he finally thought she was worthy of being cast opposite him.
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