From Aaradhna To Heeramandi, Veteran Actress Farida Jalal's Journey Of Iconic Roles

Veteran actress Farida Jalal is among the most famous actresses in the Bollywood industry. She was recently featured in Netflix’s Heeramandi. She is known for her role as an on-screen mother to Bollywood superstars Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan.

Farida Jalal starred opposite Rajesh Khanna in the 1969 film Aaradhna, which also had Sharmila Tagore. The film ran for fifty weeks on the big screen. The actress got a lot of praise and won several accolades for her role.

After this film, she became a star overnight, while her pairing with Khanna was also liked a lot. The film made many records at the box office. It is considered one of the most popular films of Khanna and Tagore’s careers. After the film’s success, Jalal got many chances to work in several films.

In the 90s, Farida Jalal played the role of a mother to a grandmother in many films. The list includes blockbuster films like Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Raja Hindustani, Dil To Pagal Hai, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Kaho Naa Pyar Hai.

Farida Jalal has worked with almost every star in her career. She is a big fan of the late Bollywood star Dilip Kumar. In a recent interview with Bollywood Bubble, she said that while working with him in Gopi, she understood there could be no other artist and human being like Dilip Kumar.

She said, “I was a hardcore Dilip Kumar fan; him and Meena Kumari both. I still am. He’ll always remain in our hearts. When the offer for Gopi came, I knew I had to do it. I learned so much from him during Gopi, both as an actor and a human being. He was the kind of person who would spot an elderly light man drinking tea by himself and say, ‘Why are you sitting alone?’ He’d go over and share the tea with him and drink from his saucer. I couldn’t believe this.”

She reminisced about Rajesh Khanna and described him as an arrogant individual who was disrespectful towards her on set.

Recently, she was featured in the web series Heeramandi, where she played the role of Taha Shah’s grandmother. Even at this age, she is winning people’s hearts with her acting talent.