Aditi Rao Hydari

Film debut and rise to prominence ( 2007-2009) Aditi Rao made her film entry by playing the female lead in the Tamil period drama Sringaram along with Manoj K Jayan. Aditi Rao was seen delivering a towering performance in a dual role in the tale told in two eras in the backdrop of classical dance forms. The movie fetched much accolades including The National Film Awards in the year 2007. However Aditi Rao had her first official debut in Malayalam cinemain the year 2006 in Mammotty starrer Prajapathi. The movie which dealt with a rural kingpin who single handily runs a village had her playing the usual heroine who had limited scope for showing of her acting credentials and the movie was a mediocre hit with mostly mixed reviews but she had gained popularity among the south Indian audiences with the back to back releases. She then made her Hindi debut in the year 2009 with Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s drama film Delhi 6 where she appeared amidst an ensemble cast led by Abhishek Bachchan and Sonam Kapoor. The movie had her in a major supporting role playing the character “ Rama” a spinsterhood branded opposed by the local customs of the people living there and was seen coming up with a measured and intense act which made her debut in Bollywood successful although the movie failed to make a mark. Major career turnaround ( 2011) Aditi Rao got her much awaited respite by playing the wife of a gangster in the Irrfan Khan starrer romantic thriller Yeh Saali Zindagi in the year 2011. The movie had her pairing with Arunoday Singh, the role led to her first Award through Best Supporting Actress at Star Screen Awards that year with the movie going on to be a critical and box office success. Further string of films ( 2011-2014) After a short two year sabbatical from cinema , she returned to Bollywood with Imtiaz Ali’s coming of age musical love story Rockstar where she appeared in a major supporting role as a journalist who brings forth a major plot point and saw her sharing much screen space with the lead star Ranbir Kapoor and she was at par portraying the underlying grittiness and plotting nature of a news savvy journalist to the end and the movie panned out to be a cult classic over the time but garnered a low key commercial run at the time in 2011. Aditi Rao's only release in the year 2012 was the romcom London, Paris, New York where she paired with Ali Zafar in the lead. The clichéd Bollywood love story which dealt with a boy meets a girl at strange place and the ensuing heartbreaks and re-joining premise had nothing spectacular in store for Aditi even though the movie got mostly positive responses with strictly mediocre collections. She then appeared in the third instalment of the acclaimed Murder film series in Murder 3. The psychological thriller saw her pairing opposite Randeep Hooda as the girl who gets locked down in a secret room after her plan to observe her boyfriend goes horribly wrong after much bizarre turn of events and was yet gain seen doing her part well but the movie ended up a underperformer. Aditi had another release the same year with Akshay Kumar’s action entertainer flick Boss, along with a cast consisting of Mithun Chakraborty and Shiv Pandit where she was seen playing the love interest of the latter. The movie had her playing the “Filmy Heroine at stake” amidst the heroics of the male counterparts and left her nothing to do rather than to just flaunt her good looks. The movie too was an average fair. She further went on to make an extended cameo in the romcom Khoobsurat alongside Fawad Khan and Sonam Kapoor in 2014. Recent films ( 2015-2016) She kick-started her 2015 with the grossly underperforming comedy Guddu Rangeela co-starring Ronit Roy, Arshad Warsi and Amit Sadh. The year 2015 proved to be quintessential for her when she was offered to pair with Farhan Akhtar in Bejoy Nambiar’s psychological crime thriller Wazir, where she played a wife who is reluctant to forget her husband’s carelessness, after an incident involving his official duty which led to their daughters killing in a shooting. Wazir was well appreciated for its twisty ending and measured screenplay and Aditi was showered with praises for getting under the skin of the character and was seen successfully emoting the mental traumas and especially for also being pitch perfect in the melancholic scenes and the movie was one of the first hits of the year 2016 in Bollywood. She then appeared in Abhishek Kapoor’s romantic drama Fitoor with Aditya Roy Kapur, Katrina Kaif and Tabu in the lead , and incidentally she played the younger version of Tabu in an extended cameo. Manish Jha’s Hindi comedy flick The Legend of Michael Mishra was her latest release along with an ensemble cast involving Arshad Warsi , Boman Irani and Kayoze Irani in the lead which was a forgettable outing. Aditi Rao’s upcoming films are Aur Devdas and Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat in Hindi and Mani Ratnam’s Tamil romantic drama Kaatru Veliyidai opposite Karthi , all of which is slated to be 2017 releases.