Some interesting facts about certain Bollywood actors mentioned below:
- Ashok Kumar was a lab assistant in Bombay Talkies before he became an actor in 1936.
Image Credit: © BCCL
2. Dimple was only sixteen years old when Raj Kapoor introduced her in ‘Bobby’ (1973). She also got married to Bollywood superstar Rajesh Khanna at the age of 16. Despite the enormous success of ‘Bobby’, she then took a sabbatical from acting to raise her children.
3. ‘Mughal-e-Azam’ (1960) was a trilingual – with all scenes shot thrice in Hindi, Tamil and English. When the Tamil one flopped miserably, the English language one was aborted.
4. Lata Mangeshkar's song ‘Ae Malik Tere Bande Hum’ from ‘Do Aankhen Barah Haath’ (1957) which was an original composition by Vasant Desai, was adapted by a Pakistani school as the school anthem.
5. Style diva Rekha wears only crimson or chocolate colored lipstick when making public appearances.
6. In the film ‘Heroine,’ Kareena Kapoor wore over 130 different dresses by top fashion designers from all over the world. It has been reported that Kareena’s wardrobe for the film was one of the most expensive out of all the Bollywood movies ever created!
7. ‘Rockstar’ was shot in reverse, with the climax being shot first. Reason: The film makers did not want to mess Ranbir Kapoor’s hairstyle.
8. Anil Kapoor’s family lived in Raj Kapoor’s garage when they first moved to Mumbai. Later, they shifted to a room in one of Mumbai’s middle-class suburbs. i.e. Tilak Nagar in Amar Mahal close to Chembur. Infact, Sanjay and Anil Kapoor played cricket in RCF grounds, Chembur.
9. Raj Kapoor’s ‘Mera Naam Joker’ was the first Hindi movie to have not one but two intervals!
10. Sridevi was only 13, when she played Rajnikanth’s step mom in a Tamil film called ‘Moondru Mudichu.’
11. ‘Kaho Naa.. Pyar Hai’ was added to the Guinness Book of World Records 2002 edition for winning the most number of awards for a movie. The movie won a total of 92 awards!
12. Bollywood actress Kalki Koechlin's great-grandfather Maurice Koechlin, was the Chief engineer for the construction of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and also the iconic Statue of Liberty.
13. Hrithik’s actual surname is Nagrath & not Roshan!
14. Ranveer Singh, original name, Ranveer Singh Bhavnani is a Sindhi and actually Sonam Kapoor's cousin! Sonam Kapoor’s mother is also a Sindhi.
15. Amitabh Bachchan is probably the most punctual n sincere actor in Bollywood. And that's why he commands that respect.
Even at this age, he prepares n studies the role very very deeply.
If there's a shift from 6 am, 7 am or a night sequence starting at 9 pm expect Big B to reach much much before time.
First to arrive on the set, Last to leave the set !!!!
That's unique for Mr. Bachchan
16. Dharmendra’s fee when he debuted in 1960 in the movie ‘Dil Bhi Tera Hum Bhi Tere’ was a meager 51 rupees.
17. The longest film in the world is also a Bollywood film. ‘LOC: Kargil’ is 4 hours and 25 minutes long and if you plan to catch this war saga, we recommend you’re sitting comfortably.
18. Shah Rukh Khan’s least favorite school subject was Hindi. To encourage SRK with his learning, his mother offered to take him to see a Hindi film if he improved.
19. The film ‘Lagaan’ by Aamir Khan has the most number of British actors playing a significant role in the entire history of Bollywood cinema.
20. Salman Khan likes to collect soaps. In his bathroom, there is a collection of all kinds of handmade and herbal soaps. His favourites are soaps made from natural fruit and vegetable extracts.
21. For a country that is obsessed with films, there are still very few cinema screens. India has fewer than 13,000 screens compared with nearly 40,000 screens in the US.
22. Akshay Kumar is superstitious. He will never write anything on a page unless he first heads it with an ‘Om’.
Akshay’s original name is ‘Rajiv HariOm Bhatia’.
23. During the making of ‘Sholay’, Dharmendra paid the light boys to make mistakes during shots, so that he could embrace Hema Malini again and again.
24. The Bachchans hold the Guinness World record for being the only father-son duo to have played reversed roles on-screen in Paa.
25. Swades is a movie based on real life couple named Aravinda Pillalamarri and Ravi Kuchimanchi. The NRI couple had returned to India and developed a pedal power generator to light remote, off-the-grid village schools.
There are literally many many more such deeper insights into Bollywood. Everyone is related or known to some or the other yesteryear film personality.
