President Droupadi Murmu will present veteran Hindi film actress, director, and producer Asha Parekh with the Lifetime Achievement Award for her contributions to the film industry at this year’s Dadasaheb Phalke Awards. Anurag Singh Thakur, the Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, announced the honour for the actress on Twitter. He tweeted: “I’m honoured to announce that Asha Parekh ji will receive recognition and an award from the Dadasaheb Phalke Selection Jury for her outstanding lifetime contribution to Indian cinema. At the 68th NFA in Vigyan Bhawan (sic), the Hon. President of India will present the Dadasaheb Phalke Award.”
Asha Parekh began her career as a child artist at the age of 10 with the film Maa, going by the stage name Baby Asha Parekh. Her career has spanned almost five decades. For Bombay Talkies, Bimal Roy was the director of the social family drama. He was requested to travel from Kolkata to Bombay to direct the movie for the company, which was having financial difficulties. After seeing Asha perform on stage, Bimal Roy hired her for the movie and used her again in Baap Beti. She was dismayed by the failure of the latter picture, and although taking on a few more kid roles, she left the industry to go back to school.
She gave acting another go at the age of sixteen. She attempted to make her acting debut as a heroine, but Vijay Bhatt’s Goonj Uthi Shehnai rejected her because he felt she lacked star potential. She was later cast as the lead in Dil Deke Dekho, opposite Shammi Kapoor, by writer-director Nasir Hussain (the uncle of Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan), which catapulted her to fame. The movie also sparked Asha and Nasir’s long-lasting friendship. Even the actress herself claimed in her memoir, The Hit Girl, that the two were allegedly dating. She received the Padma Shri award in 1992 in recognition of her contributions to cinema.
(source : IANS)
