MADHURI MANIA !!!!
Madhuri Dixit, referred as the "epitome of grace", is a matchless actress of Indian cinema. With exceptional acting and dancing skills, she carried the most complex roles with elegance, breathed life into every role she essayed, and transcended simple dance moves into expression euphoria. Consequently, she won five FILMFARE (Indian equivalent of Oscar) awards, including four in the "best actress" category, and won 15 FILMFARE nominations, two as "Best supporting actress", and 13 as "Best Actress" which is an all time record of maximum nominations in the "Best Actress" category. Innumerable credible-polls (such as the BBC poll) and major websites (such as rediff.com) declared her as the "Greatest Bollywood Actress Ever". Her awards and the facts that the legendary Bollywood actor Late Ashok Kumar (who saw every actress in Bollywood) termed her as the "first complete actress in 100 years of Indian cinema", and India’s ambassador of modern Art, painter M.F. Hussain dedicated hundreds of paintings and a movie titled "Gajagamini" to her talent are glowing testimonials that she is the greatest actress of Indian cinema.
Her career spans over two decades, and has been a dazzling story of success, stature, and fame that earned her the title of the biggest ever female superstar of Bollywood. The 'Madhuri Juggernaut' was unstoppable for more than a decade, giving countless hits and some of the biggest blockbusters of Bollywood; the shine of her as a star eclipsed her co-actors. She rewrote the definition of success, got a lifetime of fan following that was unprecedented, and because of her ability to turn ordinary movies into huge successes, she was named the "Female Amitabh Bachchan".
The "Madhuri Magic" continues to rule the nation; even an exhibition of her photographs in the small city of Pune attracted thousands of people in June 2009. A few examples to show her superlative achievements as a star are: she won the "Female Megastar of the Millennium" contest conducted by the Kinetic Mega show in Star TV; many credible polls (such as ZeeNews poll) declared her as the biggest female superstar of Bollywood; Forbes magazine named her among the five most powerful Indian movie stars; and the millennium edition of the "Guinness Book of World Records" records her name as the highest paid Indian actress.
With all the stardom and glory, she has always remained a down-to-earth and humble persona. With utmost honesty, sincerity, and professionalism to her work, she carried herself with exemplary poise and dignity in all spheres of life. Thus, she became the ideal role model to emulate, and is loved and admired immensely by the entire industry. The government of India honored her with the “National Citizen Award” for being an ideal citizen and a role model. Moreover, a movie tited “Main Madhuri Dixit Bana Chahti Hoon” (“I want to become Madhuri Dixit”) was made, and it truly reflected the aspirations of millions to become like her.
Her reign had a huge impact in India and worldwide. Her immense popularity in Pakistan is summarized in the famous slogan from Pakistan: "Madhuri de do, Kashmir le lo" ("Give us Madhuri, take Kashmir"); and the impact is equally immense worldwide. A lake in North-eastern India is renamed after her as the "Madhuri Lake": this is another symbol of her far-reaching impact. For her outstanding contribution to Indian cinema she was conferred with the Padmashri award, fourth highest civilian honor, by the government of India and was honored at the the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles.