Happy Birthday Dimple Kapadia: Unseen pictures of the Bobby actress

Actress Dimple Kapadia turns a year older today, and Dimple was born on June 8, 1956 in a Gujarati family. She made her Bollywood debut in the 1973 film Bobby.

Dimple was only 16 when she starred in her first film opposite Rishi Kapoor.

In that same year, she married Indian actor Rajesh Khanna and retired from acting. Kapadia returned to films in 1984, two years after her separation from Khanna. Her comeback film Saagar was released a year later, and gained her wide public recognition. She won the Filmfare Award for Best Actress twice for Bobby and Saagar. She went on to establish herself as one of the leading actresses of Hindi cinema in the 1980s.

Kapadia separated from Khanna in April 1982, moving with her two daughters back to her parents' house

After Kapadia's separation from Khanna in 1982, she was keen on returning to acting, which she did in 1984. For the next decade, she would go on to become one of the leading actresses in Hindi cinema

In Kapadia's first film of the millennium, she co-starred in Farhan Akhtar's directorial debut Dil Chahta Hai (2001). Depicting the contemporary routine life of Indian affluent youth, it is set in modern-day urban Mumbai and focuses on a major period of transition in the lives of three young friends (Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan and Akshaye Khanna).Kapadia played the role of Tara Jaiswal, a middle-aged alcoholic woman, an interior designer by profession, and a divorcee who is not allowed to meet with her daughter. The film presents her story through the character of Siddharth (Khanna), a much younger man whom she befriends and who ultimately falls deeply in love with her. She said making the picture was an enriching experience and called her part "a role to die for".

Kapadia has worked less frequently since the mid 1990s. She played a supporting part in Dil Chahta Hai (2001) and was noted for her portrayal of a troubled middle-aged wife in the American production Leela (2002). Some of her later film credits include leading roles in Hum Kaun Hai? (2004), Pyaar Mein Twist (2005), Phir Kabhi (2008), Tum Milo Toh Sahi (2010) and What the Fish (2013), and supporting roles in Being Cyrus (2006), Luck by Chance (2009), Dabangg (2010), Cocktail (2012), Finding Fanny (2014), and Angrezi Medium (2020). Kapadia is the mother of Twinkle Khanna and Rinke Khanna, both former actresses.

Kapadia is an art lover, and has experimented in painting and sculpture. In 1998, she started a new company, The Faraway Tree, which sells candles that she designs. Having been a candle enthusiast and finding candle-making therapeutic, she went on to develop this skill in Wales, where she took a workshop with Blackwood-based candle artist David Constable.

In her first film of the decade, Kapadia appeared alongside Irrfan Khan and Kareena Kapoor Khan in her fourth endeavor under Homi Adajania's direction, the comedy-drama Angrezi Medium. A spiritual sequel to the 2017 film Hindi Medium, the film was theatrically released in India on 13 March amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected its commercial performance due to the closing of the cinemas.

When Kapadia made her comeback to movies, she faced constant comparison to her Bobby days.

Kapadia, who called herself "film crazy", aspired to be an actress even as a child.Her father used to socialise with people from the film industry and frequented parties hosted by screenwriter Anjana Rawail. Due to his contacts, Dimple was almost assigned to play the younger version of Vyjayanthimala's character in H. S. Rawail's Sunghursh (1968), but was eventually dismissed as she looked older than the part called for.