01 January 2015 :: Happy Birthday : Deepa Mehta, Nana Patekar, Sonali Bendre & Vidya Balan :: 1st of January.
Deepa Mehta
Deepa Mehta, ( born 1 January 1950) is an Indo-Canadian film director and screenwriter, most known for her Elements Trilogy, Fire (1996), Earth (1998), and Water (2005); among which Earth was sent by India as its official entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and Water was Canada’s official entry for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, making it only the second non-French-language Canadian film to put forth for consideration in that category (the first being Zacharias Kunuk’s 2001 Inuktitut-language feature, Atanarjuat), and the first to receive an Oscar nomination. She also co-founded Hamilton-Mehta Productions, with her husband, producer David Hamilton in 1996. She was awarded a Genie Award in 2003 for the screenplay of Bollywood/Hollywood.
Mehta was born in Amritsar, Punjab, India, though her family moved to New Delhi while she was still a child, and her father worked as a film distributor. Subsequently, Mehta attended Welham Girls High School, a boarding school for girls in Dehradun and graduated from the Lady Shri Ram College for Women, University of Delhi with a degree in philosophy.
Nana Patekar
Vishwanath “Nana” Patekar (born 1st January 1951) is an Indian actor, writer and filmmaker. Patekar was born as Vishwanath Patekar on 1 January 1951 in Murud-Janjira in Raigad District, Maharashtra, to Gajanand Patekar, a small textile printing businessman and his wife Nirmala Patekar, a housewife. He is an alumnus of the Sir J.J. Institute of Applied Art, Mumbai.
Sonali Bendre
Sonali Bendre (born 1 January 1975) is an Indian actress, television personality and model. She has appeared in more than 50 Hindi films in genres including romance, action and comedy. Apart from starring in Bollywood films, she has also acted in various Tamil, Telugu, Marathi and Kannada films.
She was also one of the four judges in the fourth season of Indian Idol and India’s Got Talent. She has been the brand ambassador for Pril soap, Surya bulbs and tubes, Omega watches, Dr. Morepen, Dabur, Vi-John Group etc. in Maharashtra and Kalyana Kanchi in Andhra Pradesh. She would be the narrator of the TV Reality Show Mission Sapne on Colors TV.
Sonali was born in Mumbai into a Marathi family. She studied in Bangalore and Mumbai in Kendriya Vidyalaya Malleswaram and Holy Cross Convent High School, Thane.Thereafter she went to Welham Girls School, Dehradun.
Vidya Balan
Vidya Balan ( born 1 January 1978) is an Indian actress. She has established a successful career in Bollywood and is the recipient of several awards, including a National Film Award, five Filmfare Awards, and five Screen Awards, and was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2014. She is known for portraying strong female protagonists and has been acknowledged in the media for pioneering a change in the concept of a Hindi film heroine.
Vidya Balan was born on 1 January 1978 in Poothamkurussy, Puthur, a town in the Palakkad District of Kerala, to P. R. Balan, currently the Executive Vice-President of Digicable, and Saraswathy Balan, a homemaker. According to Vidya, they speak a mix of Malayalam and Tamil at home; she is also well versed in Hindi, Marathi, English and Bengali
Vidya grew up in the suburban neighbourhood of Chembur, Mumbai and was schooled at St. Anthony Girls’ High School.
