Asha Parekh Age

Bollywood Hit Girl Asha Parekh was born 2 October 1942. She is 76 years old.

Asha Parekh Family

Asha Parekh is a Gujarati born on 2 October 1942 to Sudha aka Salma Parekh, a Bohri Muslim and Bachubhai Parekh, a Gujarati.

Her mother enrolled her in Indian classical dance classes at an early age and she learned from many teachers, including Pandit Bansilal Bharati.

Asha Parekh Biography

Parekh started her career as a child artist under the screen name Baby Asha Parekh. Famed film director Bimal Roy saw her dance at a stage function and cast her at the age of ten in Maa (1952 film) and then repeated her in Baap Beti (1954).

The latter film’s failure disappointed her, and even though she did a few more child roles, she quit to resume her schooling.

Asha Parekh Images

Asha Parekh Movies

At sixteen she decided to try acting again, and to make her debut as a heroine, but she was rejected in favour of actress Ameeta, because the filmmaker claimed she was not star material.

Precisely eight days later, film producer Subodh Mukherjee and writer-director Nasir Hussain cast her as the heroine in Dil Deke Dekho (1959) opposite Shammi Kapoor, which made her a huge star.

Parekh was primarily known as a glamour girl/excellent dancer/tomboy in most of her films.

Later director Raj Khosla gave her a serious image by casting her in tragedienne roles in three of her favourite films; Do Badan (1966), Chirag (1969) and Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki (1978).

Parekh acted in her mother tongue by starring in three Gujarati films at the height of her fame in Hindi films, the first being Akhand Saubhagyavati (1963), which became a huge hit.

She also acted in some Punjabi films, as well as the hit Kannada film Sharavegada Saradara (1989).

After her days as a leading lady ended, Parekh took on supporting roles as bhabhi (sister-in-law) and mother, but she called this the “awkward phase” of her career.

So she stopped acting in films, and her friends recommended that she become a television director.

Asha Parekh Husband

Parekh has remained unmarried. She claiming that her reputation of being unapproachable made people hesitate in asking for her hand in marriage.

In her memoir “The Hit Girl”, she confirmed rumors that she was romantically involved with her married director Nasir Hussain. However out of respect for both their families, she couldn’t marry him.

Previously, Parekh would only state that she had a longtime boyfriend but declined to elaborate on the relationship. She only stating that “it was nice while it lasted.”

She said she had not seen Nasir Hussain during the last year of his life. Later he became reclusive because of his wife’s death, but she did speak to him the day before he died in 2002.

Asha Parekh Daughter/Son

She has no children.

Asha Parekh House

Today, Parekh concentrates on her dance academy Kara Bhavan. The Asha Parekh Hospital in Santa Cruz, Mumbai, named in her honour because of her many humanitarian contributions

Asha Parekh Awards

Parekh received the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002.

She has continued to receive other Lifetime Achievement Awards: the Kalakar Award in 2004; the International Indian Film Academy Awards in 2006; the Pune International Film Festival Award in 2007; and the Ninth Annual Bollywood Award in Long Island, New York in 2007.

She received the Living Legend Award from the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI)