Asha Parekh

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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