‘Bombay Begums’ Full Cast List: Meet Pooja Bhatt, Shahana Goswami and rest of the stars from Netflix Women's Day flick
Five power-packed performances are lined up for Alankrita Shrivastava's newest 'Bombay Begums' — stories 'of women, by women, and for women'. The Netflix series explores the dreams and desires of five women from different strata of society as they fight for survival in the big city.
The trailer, which dropped on Monday, promises excitement with a cast starring Pooja Bhatt, Shahana Goswami, Amruta Subhash, Plabita Borthakur and Aadhya Anand. "Some women are born to rules. We call them queens," the trailer begins to say, "Some women secretly aspire to be Queen," it adds. Here's what's to know about the stars of the Hindi social-issue drama.
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Pooja Bhatt
Pooja Bhatt plays the role of stepmother Rani in 'Bombay Begums'. She is the daughter of Bollywood director Mahesh Bhatt and Loraine Bright. She made a debut with her father's production 'Daddy' when she was just 17 years old, acting alongside Anupam Kher, for which she won a Filmfare award. The actor has two National Film Awards.
Her last film appearance was in the English language film 'Everybody Says I'm Fine!' in 2001. The film was the directorial debut of Indian actor Rahul Bose, the soundtrack, composed by tabla player Zakir Hussain and released by Universal, was the first Indian soundtrack to feature Carlos Santana. Following this, she has focused on producing and directing. She made her directorial debut with Paap in 2004, starring John Abraham and Udita Goswami. Since then, she has made four more directorial ventures such as 'Holiday','Dhokha', 'Kajraare', and 'Jism 2'.
Shahana Goswami
Shahana Goswami plays Fatima, a married woman struggling to find a balance between her work and career. The actor has starred as Meenakshi Mehra in Mira Nair's 'A Suitable Boy', 'Thinkistan', 'Midnight's Children', 'Ra.One' and 'Rock On!!'.
A school sports champion, Goswami has also trained in Odissi for 10 years under Guru Padmashri Kiran Segal and has travelled and performed extensively with her dance troupe. She appeared in the music video for Dido's 'Let's Do the Things We Normally Do' as a taxi driver in Mumbai.
Amruta Subhash
Amruta Subhash plays the role of Lily, a bar dancer. She starred in 'Choked', 'Ghost Stories', 'Sacred Games' and 'Gully Boy'.
Subhash made her debut with the National Award-winning film and India's Oscar entry for the year 2004 in 'Shwaas'. The producer of 'Shwaas' had no money to promote the film, and Amitabh Bachchan donated Rs 1 lakh to support it. Unfortunately, the film didn't make it to the final list of nominees. Subhash is a trained Bharatnatyam dancer and a playback singer, who has lent her voice to various Marathi films.
Plabita Borthakur
Plabita Borthakur plays the role of Ayesha, a worker at Rani’s office. The actress is known for her work in 'PK', 'Breathe: Into the Shadows', 'What's Your Status', and 'Lipstick Under My Burkha', for which she rave reviews for her performance as a Muslim girl who wants to be a rockstar. She was nominated for a Star Screen Award for her performance.
The Assamese actress got her headstart with numerous ad assignments and concerts with her band 'Manu and Chow'.
Aadhya Anand
Aadhya Anand plays Rani's step-daughter Shai. The series will a web series debut for the actress, model and dancer, who has earlier starred in a 2016 Singaporean film called 'Utter 2016: One Hour To Daylight'. She has also starred in films like 'Whoopie's World' and 'Lion Mums'. She is a recipient of the Singtel Young Achiever's Award for 2017.
She has modeled appearances in several print and television advertising campaigns such as Cornetto, Resorts World Sentosa, Universal Studios Singapore, Sensodyne, Reliance, TVS Jupiter. She was the face of Fox Fashion Israel.
Vivek Gomber
Vivek Gomber is an actor and producer, who starred as Lovely Singh in 'Mumbai Calling (2008), and as Arun Mehra in 'A Suitable Boy'. The 41-year-old actor also starred in Rohena Gera’s 'Sir', alongside Tillotama Shome.
About two decades ago, Vivek Gomber travelled from Singapore to Mumbai to try his luck as an actor. He went on to produce Chaitanya Tamhane’s highly-acclaimed films 'Court' (he also acted in the film) and 'The Disciple', which won the FIPRESCI International Critics Prize at the Venice International Film Festival last year.
Rahul Bose
Rahul Bose, who plays Mahesh Rao in 'Bombay Begums', has appeared in Bengali films such as 'Mr and Mrs Iyer', 'Kalpurush', 'Anuranan', 'Antaheen', 'Laptop' and 'The Japanese Wife'. He left his job as an advertising creative director to become an actor in Dev Benegal's 'English, August'. It was one of the first Hinglish films and gained Bose international recognition when it became the first Indian film to be purchased by 20th Century Fox, winning several awards at international film festivals. He was offered a role in India's first English-language television serial, 'A Mouthful of Sky' and also co-hosted 'BBC World's Style!' with Laila Rouass.
Bose also performed abroad in the Leicester Haymarket in England where he starred in the English version of Tim Murari's play, 'The Square Circle'. In 2017, he directed, produced and acted in the biopic 'Poorna' about the youngest girl to climb Mount Everest.
Manish Chaudhary
Chaudhary is an actor, best known for his character of Sunil Puri in 'Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year'. He made his film debut in the 2003 film 'Rules: Pyaar Ka Superhit Formula'. He was also casted in web-series Aarya.
Chaudhary, who discovered his love for acting while at St Paul's School, Darjeeling, has starred in a host of other films like 'Mohenjo Daro', 'Batla House', 'Satyameva Jayate', 'Noor' and 'Bombay Velvet'.
Nauheed Cyrusi
Cyrusi plays the role of Piya Punwani in 'Bombay Begums'. She wanted a career as an Air Hostess, but after modeling for three years, she decided to stick with showbiz and appeared in numerous TV commercials. The Parsi actress, one of the few in India, got noticed and appreciated in the 2006 English comedy 'Rockin' Meera' which was shot extensively in Rajasthan and California.
She posts a lot of makeup tips and videos on her Instagram handle. She is married and enjoys posting pictures of her Cocker Spaniel Jojo.
'Bombay Begums' is aimed for a Women's Day drop on Netflix, on March 8, 2021.