Rohini Hattangadi details, life, family, career, and more

Rohini Hattangadi is a famous Indian actress in the Bollywood industry. She mainly works for Marathi, Hindi, Tamil, Gujarati, and Telegu films. She also appears in Marathi soap operas and theatre. Moreover, her performances made her win Filmfare Awards and a National Film Award. Also, in India, she is the only actress who won BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her role Kasturba Gandhi in Gandhi in 1982.

About Rohini Hattangadi

Born	11 April 1955
Age (as of 2021)	67 years
Birthplace	Pune, India
Profession	Theatre artist, actress
Famous for
Martial status	Window
School	Renuka Swaroop Memorial Girls High School
College/university	National School of Drama (NSD)
Height	5’4”
Weight	70 kg
Eye colour	Dark brown
Hair colour	White

Early life and career of Rohini Hattangadi

Rohini Hattangadi was born on 11 April 1955. Her birthplace is Pune. She also did her schooling at Renuka Swaroop Memorial Girls High School, Pune, in 1955. Then, she joined the National School of Drama (NSD) of New Delhi in 1971. She was also graduated in 1974.

Personal life of Rohini

Ratna Hattangadi met her future husband, Jaydev Hattangadi, in the National School of Drama, New Delhi. Jayadev was in the same batch as hers. They were trained together by Ebrahim Alkazi. Afterward, Rohini was awarded the Best Actress award and an award for Best all-round student, while Jayadev, who was being taught in direction, won the Best Director award. Jayadev and Rohini also married the following year.

Rohini and Jayadev also have a son, Aseem Hattangadi. Aseem is also a theatre actor who acted in Badal Sicar’s play, Evam Indrajit. His father also directed this play. However, Jaydev Hattangadi died on 5 December 2008, aged 60, after a battle with cancer.

Rohini started her career with the Marathi stage. Once in Bombay from NSD, Jayadev and Rohini started a Marathi theatre group in Bombay called ‘Awishkar,’ producing over 150 plays.

Career

Theatre

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,’ produced by ‘Awishkar,’ in Mumbai. Since then, there has been no looking back for her.

She has the distinction of being the first woman to act in ‘Yakshagana,’ a folk play from Karnataka titled ‘Bhisma Vijay,’ directed by Dr. K. Shivaram Karanth, besides being the first woman in Asia to act in a Japanese Kabuki play, Ibaragi, directed by Shozo Sato, a well-known Japanese director.

But the play that stands out in her long and illustrious career is ‘Aparajita,’ based on a Bengali story by Nitin Sen; this 120 minutes long, solo-act play valiantly displays her range and ability to transit from one emotional high to another while retaining the center of all the character, she played on the stage, over 18 of them.

First staged in 1999, the play has, over the years, been performed both in Hindi and Marathi. Incidentally, it was the first performance, in a long time to be directed by her husband, noted theatre director Jayadev Hattangadi; in all, she has performed in five plays directed by him, including Medea, a Greek tragedy written by Euripides.

Her other works

Over the years, she has played several memorable characters on the stage, like Vimla Pandey of ‘Mahayagya’ to a Hindustani classical singer in ‘Yeh Kahaan Aa Gaye Hum,’ from a committed social worker in ‘Intehaan’ to the unlettered and harassed Sakkubai in ‘Hindustani’; Hattangadi can transcend herself and melt herself into the characters she plays on stage, ever so eloquently.

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

Her work was also widely appreciated in Vijay Tendulkar’s ‘Mitra Chi Gosht’ directed by Vinay Apte, ‘Hori’ based on Premchand’s ‘Godaan,’ produced by IPTA, and most recently in Hindi play, ‘Kohra,’ with Sudha Chandran and Babul Bhavsar.

Jayadev and Rohini Hattangadi also were involved in the functioning of ‘Kalashray,’ a center for research and education in arts and talent encouragement in Mumbai, working with the underprivileged and developing tools for assertive communication.

Films

Rohini Hattangadi also made her film debut with Saeed Akhtar Mirza’s Arvind Desai Ki Ajeeb Dastaan in 1978. This film so won the National Film Award for Best Film. Moreover, this film was followed by his following, Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyon Ata Hai (1980) and Chakra (1981) by Rabindra Dharmaraj, starring Naseeruddin Shah and Smita Patil in lead roles.

Her next big break was an international film Gandhi (1982), which also got her instant global recognition, and BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a supporting role in 1982, the only Asian to reach that.

This was closely followed by her string of acclaimed performances in films such as Mahesh Bhatt’s Arth (1982). This also won her the Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award in 1984 and Govind Nihalani’s Party (1984). This movie also made her win the 1985 National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress.

This was followed by two films shown as an aging housewife, Mohan Joshi Hazir Ho! and Saaransh with Anupam Kher, both released in 1984. By this time, she was also heavily type-cast by the commercial Hindi cinema in motherly roles. Also, she played her first maternal role as Kasturba Gandhi in Gandhi (1982) when she was only 27 years old.

Afterward, she appeared in a small role in N. Chandra’s Pratighaat (1987), Chaalbaaz and Ladaai ( 1989), Jalwa (1987), Aghaat (1985), Anjuman (1986), Mane and Ek Ghar (1991), Damini (1993), Ghatak (1996), and Pukar (2000).

Recent works

Moreover, her performance in the Sanjay Dutt hit Munnabhai MBBS (2003) was widely appreciated. She also acted in the Tamil version, Vasool Raja MBBS, in the same role as the protagonist’s mother. Recently she is going to appear in the movie Jalsa aired on Amazon Prime.

Some interesting facts about Rohini Hattangadi

• Rohini Hattangadi was born and brought up in Pune, India.
• Over the years, she has acted in over 70 films in all, and in each, she has portrayed her characters as powerfully as she does in her theatre performances.
• Rohini also learned classical dance forms “Kathakali” and “Bharatnatyam. “
• Rohini met her future husband “Jaydev” in NSD. After NSD, they both joined a theatre group “Awishkar. “
• “Mitra Chi Goshta“, “Hori,” and “Kohra” were her most successful plays.
• Hattangadi made her Bollywood debut with the movie Ajeeb Dastaan in 1978.
• Currently, she is playing an essential role in Sony Marathi’s show Boss Majhi Ladachi.

Also read: Avantika Akerkar