Dimple Kapadia

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Lore & Background

Dimple Kapadia was born on 8 June 1957 in Bombay to Gujarati businessman Chunibhai Kapadia and his wife Bitti, who was known as 'Betty'. As an infant, she was given the name Ameena by Aga Khan III, by which she was never referred to. She is the eldest of four children; her siblings, all of whom have died, were sisters Simple (also an actress) and Reem, and a brother, Suhail. The family resided in the Bombay suburb Santacruz, where Kapadia studied at St Joseph's Convent High School. At age 15, she married the actor Rajesh Khanna, then aged 30, after a short courtship. The wedding was performed according to Arya Samaj rites in her father's bungalow in Juhu on 27 March 1973 and was followed by a grand reception event attended by thousands later in the evening—six months before the release of Bobby. At her husband's behest, Kapadia quit acting following the marriage. She gave birth to two daughters, Twinkle (born 1974) and Rinke (born 1977). Kapadia separated from Khanna in April 1982 and returned with her two daughters to her parents' house. In a 1985 interview with India Today, she remarked, 'The life and happiness in our house came to an end the day I and Rajesh got married.' Khanna fell ill in early 2012, and Kapadia stayed by his side and took care of him until his death on 18 July that year.

Reader's Guide

Kapadia's career is marked by a dramatic arc: a teenage debut in the blockbuster Bobby, a sudden retirement after marriage, and a successful comeback in the mid-1980s. Her first post-hiatus film was Saagar; a mutual friend had notified the director Ramesh Sippy about Kapadia's willingness to return to acting, and she was invited to audition for the part. She considered her screen test unsuccessful because she was 'literally shivering' while performing it, but Sippy cast her to play the lead part opposite her Bobby co-star Rishi Kapoor. She was among the first actresses who starred in women-centred Hindi action films but found greater favour with critics when she took on more dramatic roles in both mainstream and neorealist parallel cinema. For her role as a professional mourner in Rudaali, she won the National Film Award for Best Actress and a Filmfare Critics Award. Starting in the mid 1990s, Kapadia became more selective about her work, and her screen appearances in the following decades were fewer. She was noted for her portrayal of middle-aged, complicated women courted by younger men in Dil Chahta Hai (2001) and the American production Leela (2002). Her later credits include character roles in Being Cyrus (2006), Luck by Chance (2009), Dabangg (2010), Cocktail (2012) and Finding Fanny (2014). Roles in the Hollywood thriller Tenet (2020), action film Pathaan (2023), as well as the streaming series Saas, Bahu Aur Flamingo (2023), brought her further recognition.

Did You Know?

• As an infant, Dimple Kapadia was given the name Ameena by Aga Khan III, though she was never referred to by it.
• She married actor Rajesh Khanna at age 15 on 27 March 1973, six months before the release of Bobby.
• Kapadia's comeback film Saagar was intended to be her first post-hiatus release but was delayed a year, so other projects came out first.
• In 1998, she started a company called The Faraway Tree, which sells candles that she designs, after taking a workshop with candle artist David Constable in Wales.
• She was with Rajesh Khanna when he died on 18 July 2012, and said his loss, along with the deaths of her sister Simple and her brother, left her feeling 'truly abandoned'.