Stories of an actor’s success in Bollywood, one of the world’s biggest film industries, remains concealed beneath the blockbusters, red carpets, trophies and flashlights.
For Manisha Koirala, the struggle was real. Hailing from a prominent political family in Nepal, she arrived in Bollywood in the 1990s. After spending much of her early life in Varanasi, later in Delhi and Mumbai, Manisha started off as a model and made her acting debut in the Nepali film “Pheri Bhetaula” in 1989, only to make her Bollywood debut two years later with “Saudagar” (1991).
Amid a vast majority of cliched stories in contemporary Bollywood, where female actors had less than little to bite into, Manisha managed to stand out with her debut drama. Eventually, “Saudagar,”a romantic drama starring B-town darlings Dilip Kumar and Raaj Kumar, went on to become the top-grossing film of the year.
Manisha never had to look back after “Saudagar.” With her sheer beauty, charm and excellence, Manisha has enthralled audiences and directors alike for a decade. Her 1995 film “Bombay,” starring alongside Arvind Swamy, was another blockbuster hit, and the song “Hamma Hamma” became the audiences' favourite. Even more than two decades after its release, “Bombay” stands out as one of Manisha Koirala's best Bollywood ventures. Over the decade, she has acted with all the major actors and directors of her time and won Filmfare Awards for her work in films like “Bombay,” “Khamoshi,” “1942: A Love Story,” and “Company.”
Despite many not-so-great box office collections and infrequency of appearance, Manisha remains an intense actor all the way, who throws everything she has on the screen. Deeply consumed by the roles she portrays, she has earned plaudits for her work in parallel and regional films.
It came as a shock to her throng of fans throughout South Asia and beyond when Manisha revealed her tryst with cancer in 2012. Nevertheless, being the vivacious fighter she was, Manisha came out a winner after a six-month arduous battle, which greatly influenced her philosophy towards life. To further epitomize her regnant journey, she jumped back to stardom again with Rajkumar Hirani’s “Sanju,” where she played the role of Nargis in the Sanjay Dutt biopic. She was also recently featured in Netflix’s “Lust Stories.”
Be it in Bollywood or her personal life, fate has bowed down to Manisha’s zeal and courage every time she faced a stumbling block.
