Asha Parekh (born 2 October 1942) is a
Bollywood actress, director, and producer. She was one of the top stars in Hindi films from 1959 to 1973.
Biography
Early life
Asha Parekh was born into a middle-class
Gujarati household on 2 October 1942 in
Mahuva,gujarat,
India to a
Jain father who was from Paldi near Pirana, Ahmedabad, Gujarat and
Muslim mother, and her religious upbringing involved worshipping
Sai Baba. Her mother enrolled her in Indian classical dance classes at an early age.
Career
Parekh started her career as a child artist under the screen name
Baby Asha Parekh in the film
Aasmaan (1952). Famed film director
Bimal Roy saw her dance at a stage function and cast her at the tender age of twelve in Baap Beti (1954). The film's failure disappointed her and even though she did a couple more child roles, she quit to resume her schooling. At sixteen she decided to try acting again and make her debut as a heroine, but she was rejected from
Vijay Bhatt's
Goonj Uthi Shehnai (1959) in favor of actress
Ameeta, because the filmmaker claimed she was not star material. The very next day, film producer
Subodh Mukherjee and writer-director
Nasir Hussain cast her as the heroine in
Dil Deke Dekho (1959) opposite
Shammi Kapoor which made her a huge...
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