Rohini Hattangadi

Rohini Hattangadi (née Oak; born 11 April 1955) is an Indian actress, known for her work in Marathi, Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, and Gujarati films, and Marathi soap operas and theatre.

She joined the National School of Drama (NSD) of New Delhi in 1971.

Although the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) was located in her hometown Pune, she did not join it because she was mainly interested in theatre and did not have early plans to enter cinema: "I just wanted to be an actor... My heart was in theatre because I learnt from my father (Anant Oak) that real acting is learnt through theatre. That's why I came all the way to Delhi to join NSD."

At NSD, she met her future husband Jayadev Hattangadi, who was in the same batch as hers.

They were trained together by Ebrahim Alkazi.

Upon graduation in 1974, Rohini was awarded the Best Actress award and an award for Best all-round student, while Jayadev, who was being trained in direction, won the Best Director award.

Jayadev and Rohini married the following year.

Rohini also received training in Indian classical dance forms, Kathakali and Bharatnatyam for more than eight years, under the guidance of Professor Surendra Wadgaonkar.

Rohini and Jayadev have a son, Aseem Hattangadi, who is a theatre actor and acted in Badal Sircar's play, Evam Indrajit, directed by his father.

In 1975 she won the Best Actress Award at the Maharashtra State Drama Festival, for her performance in Changuna, a Marathi adaptation of Federico García Lorca's Spanish classic Yerma.

The play was produced by "Awishkar" in Mumbai.

Hattangadi is the first woman to act in Kannada play Yakshagana, a folk play directed by K. Shivaram Karanth, and is the first woman in Asia to act in a Japanese Kabuki play, Ibaragi, directed by Shozo Sato, a Japanese director.

An alumna of the National School of Drama of New Delhi, Hattangadi had worked mainly in theatre when she made her movie debut with Arvind Desai Ki Ajeeb Dastaan in 1978.

Hattangadi made her film debut with Saeed Akhtar Mirza's Arvind Desai Ki Ajeeb Dastaan in 1978.

The film won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Movie.

This was followed by her appearance in Mirza's next picture, Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyon Ata Hai (1980), which won the same award, and Rabindra Dharmaraj's drama Chakra (1981).

Her characters in these films were minor.

She has won two Filmfare Awards, one National Film Award, and is the only Indian actress to win the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance as Kasturba Gandhi in Gandhi (1982).

Some of her noted cinematic roles were in such art films as Arth (1982), Party and Saaransh (1984).

Hattangadi was mostly offered character roles in mainstream Hindi cinema after her portrayal in Gandhi, often typecast in mother roles much ahead of her years.

Respected for her acting prowess, she has appeared in over 80 feature films, and is active in theatre and television.

Hattangadi was born in Pune as Rohini Oak.

She attended Renuka Swaroop Memorial Girls High School, Pune.

Her next film was Richard Attenborough's biographical film Gandhi (1982), based on the life of Mahatma Gandhi.

She played Kasturba Gandhi, the wife of Mahatma, played by Ben Kingsley.

The film was a major critical success, and among other awards won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Hattangadi's performance garnered her international recognition and she won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role in 1983, the only Asian to do that so far.

Despite the success she received for her role in Gandhi, the film was also credited with increasing "her screen age manifold".

She was 27 when she played the middle-aged Kasturba, and from then on was offered roles of women of this age group.

Hattangadi told of an instance when James Ivory wanted to cast for his film Heat and Dust, but he was surprised by how young she was when he met her and ultimately did not approach her for a part because he did not want to use make-up.

Although theatre was her main interest, she stated that it was not enough financially, stating, "I realised that theatre won't be enough to make ends meet."

One play that Hattangadi was particularly appreciated for is Aparajita, based on a Bengali story by Nitin Sen. First staged in 1999, this 120-minute long solo-act play has over the years been performed in both Hindi and Marathi.

Incidentally, it was her first performance in a long time to be directed by her husband, Jayadev Hattangadi.

In all she has performed in five plays directed by him, including Medea, a Greek tragedy written by Euripides.

Her other theatre credits include Vijay Tendulkar's Mitra Chi Gosht, directed by Vinay Apte, Hori based on Premchand's Godaan, produced by IPTA, and most recently in the Hindi play Kohra with Sudha Chandran and Babul Bhavsar.

Hattangadi, along with husband Jayadev, ran "Kalashray", a centre for research, education in arts and talent encouragement in Mumbai, working with the underprivileged and developing tools for powerful communication.

She won the 2004 Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for her contribution to Indian theatre.

Jaydev Hattangadi died on 5 December 2008, aged 60, after a battle with cancer.

Rohini started her career with Marathi stage.

Once in Mumbai while still at NSD, Jayadev and Rohini started a Marathi theatre group in Mumbai, called "Awishkar", which went on to produce over 150 plays.