Mumtaj

Mumtaj, also credited as Mumtaj, (born Nagma Khan) is an Indian model and film actress known primarily for her work in Tamil cinema. She has also appeared in Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam and Telugu films.[1][2] She entered the film industry through the Tamil film Monisha En Monalisa (1999) by T. Rajender, and subsequently garnered popularity appearing in glamorous roles in films including Kushi ,Looty and Chocolate .[3][4]

Mumtaj
Born	Nagma Khan Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Other names	Monisha Mumtaj
Occupation	Actress, model
Years active	1999–present

Early life

Mumtaj completed her schooling at St. Mary's Convent School in Mumbai. As an ardent film fan as a teenager, she revealed that her room was full of posters featuring Sridevi, and when the school bus used to cross Filmistan Studios, she used to crane her neck out to catch a glimpse of the artistes.[1][5][6]

Film career

Mumtaz's acting career began after she was spotted by film producer Sudhakar Bokade in a dance programme at Mount Mary School in Mumbai, when he subsequently offered to do a film with her, after he completed an ongoing project with Dilip Kumar titled Kalinga during 1996. As Kalinga faced delays, Bokade could not eventually start the film with Mumtaz, even though she had begun acting classes.[7] During her stint at the acting course, she was recruited by veteran filmmaker Chetan Anand to work on his film produced by Bharat Shah, with Shah Rukh Khan in the lead role. For one and a half years, Mumtaz waited for the shoot to begin, before the project was shelved following Anand's death.[8] Later in 1997, Tamil director T. Rajender signed Mumtaz to play the lead role of a pop singer in his romantic drama film, Monisha En Monalisa (1999). The film took two years to make owing to production troubles and Rajender's political activity, before opening to negative reviews from critics in April 1999.[9]

Mumtaz then made an extended guest appearance in S. J. Surya's Kushi (2000), where she portrayed a glamorous college student alongside Vijay and Jyothika. Her performance in the song "Kattipudi Kattipudida" won her appreciation and further film offers, and as a result, Mumtaz was able to increase her appearance fee substantially.[10][11] In her following projects, rather than her acting skills, her performances in song sequences won her appreciation and she regularly accepted to feature in item numbers. In the early 2000s, some of the more notable music videos shot on her included "Rasiga Rasiga" from Star (2001), "Malai Malai" from Chocolate (2001),"Missi Missi papa" from Looty and "Subbamma Subbamma" from Roja Kootam (2002).[12]

Despite the success of her song appearances, Mumtaz was keen to prolong her career in the film industry by selecting performance-oriented roles and subsequently announced her intentions of reducing one-song appearances.[13] In 2003, she turned producer and financed the film Thathi Thavadhu Manasu, featuring her alongside rookie actresses Sona, Urvasi Patel and Sindhuri in the leading roles. The film was based around two real life incidents — the murder of a lawyer in bright daylight and the accident in which 40 individuals were killed.[14] The film however performed poorly at the box office, with a critic writing "the movie's approach struggles between two completely opposite directions — a cheap, exploitative film and a tearjerker" and that "the producer seems to have banked on the film's glamour to bring in the viewers since that is what the title and the movie's promos focus on" and that "this is unfortunate because the main story has actually been taken quite well".[15][16]

In the mid-2000s, she announced plans of a comeback in acting roles, and notably appeared in Jerry (2006) and T. Rajender's long-delayed Veerasamy.[17] However, several of her other films during the period became stuck and eventually did not release, including projects such as Raviraja's Very Good, S. A. Chandrasekhar's Nenjankootill Neeye Nikkirai, Igore's Thik Thik Thik and the multi-starrer Vedakozhi.[18][19][20] She has since seldom been seen in films, making a brief foray to play the antagonist in Rajadhi Raja (2009), before appearing in the Telugu films, Atharintiki Daaredi (2013) and Aagadu (2014) in glamorous roles.[21]

Other work

Mumtaj was a judge in the first season of the reality dance competition Boys Vs Girls, which aired on Star Vijay, and season 6 of Maanada Mayilada, which aired on Kalaignar TV.[22][23] She later took part as one of the contestants in the Tamil reality show, Bigg Boss Tamil 2 hosted by Kamal Haasan.[24][25]

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Language	Notes
1999	Monisha En Monalisa	Monisha	Tamil
	Malabar Police	Julie	Tamil
	Chala Bagundi		Telugu	Special appearance in the song "Entha Bagundhi Brotheru"
	Jananaayakan	Nancy Parera	Malayalam
	Unakkaga Ellam Unakkaga		Tamil	Special appearance in the song "Duniya Hey Duniya"
2000	Kushi	Anitha	Tamil
	Budget Padmanabhan	Omana	Tamil
2001	Boond	Neelam	Hindi
	Kushi	Anitha	Telugu
	Looty	Gayathri	Tamil
	Sonnal Thaan Kaadhala	Chitra	Tamil
	Star		Tamil	Special appearance in the song "Rasiga Rasiga"
	Vedham	Pooja	Tamil
	Chocolate	Nirmala, Bhama	Tamil	Dual roles
	Mitta Miraasu	Vijaya	Tamil
	Yeh Teraa Ghar Yeh Meraa Ghar	Anupam Verma	Hindi
	Azhagana Naatkal	Rekha	Tamil
2002	Vivaramana Aalu	Puppy	Tamil
	Roja Kootam		Tamil	Special appearance in the song "Subbammaa"
	Ezhumalai	Sandhya	Tamil
	Gemini	Kamini	Telugu
	Thandavam		Malayalam
2003	Three Roses	Roma	Tamil
	Thathi Thavadhu Manasu	Aarthi	Tamil	Also producer
2004	Maha Nadigan	Nandini	Tamil
	Kuththu		Tamil	Special appearance in the song "Otha Viral Kattuna"
	Kanti		Kannada	Special appearance
	Aai		Tamil	Special appearance in the song "Mailapur Mayila"
	Chellame	Herself	Tamil	Special appearance
2005	Devathayai Kanden		Tamil	Special appearance in the song "Thunda Kanom Thuniya Kanom"
	London	Aishwarya	Tamil
2006	Jerry	Janani	Tamil
2007	Veerasamy	Sarasu	Tamil
2009	Rajadhi Raja	Shyla	Tamil
2013	Atharintiki Daaredi		Telugu	Special appearance in the song "It's Time To Party"
2014	Aagadu	Sukanya	Telugu
2019	Valaiyam		Tamil	Delayed

References

1. "I had lost confidence in myself: Mumtaj - Times of India".
2. "Mumtaj prepares well - Behindwoods.com T. Rajendar Kushi Kollywood Mayila Kollywood hot images Tamil picture gallery images".
3. "Glamorous Actress Mumtaj Unseen Photos".
4. "Mumtaj South, Telgu actress photos, stills, pics, gallery". Archived from the original on 20 June 2018. Retrieved 10 July 2016.
5. Mumtaj Fans (26 November 2012). "Actress Mumtaj return to Film" – via YouTube.
6. "Mumtaz is now 'Slim and Beautiful'".
7. "Mumtaz looking for substantial roles". 24 June 2006 – via www.thehindu.com.
8. "Welcome to Sify.com". www.sify.com.
9. "Monisha En Monalisa". Bbthots. Archived from the original on 26 April 2018. Retrieved 16 September 2018.
10. "rediff.com, Movies: Gossip from the southern film industry". m.rediff.com.
11. "The Hindu : Film Review: Kushi". www.thehindu.com.
12. "Behindwoods : Interview - Actress Sneha". www.behindwoods.com.
13. "An Interview with Mumtaj". Cinematoday3.itgo.com. Retrieved 14 October 2018.
14. thtyp. "The Hindu : Not the usual formula fare". thehindu.com. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
15. "reviews/2004/ttmanasu". bbthots.com. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
16. "Very Good for Mumtaz — Tamil Movie News". IndiaGlitz. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
17. "Tamil movies : Fit & fat Mumtaj and never ending Veerasamy shoot". www.behindwoods.com.
18. "Very Good for Mumtaz - Tamil Movie News - IndiaGlitz.com".
19. "Mumtaj, the cop - Tamil Movie News - IndiaGlitz.com".
20. "Horror is palatable - Thik Thik - Tamil Movie News - IndiaGlitz.com".
21. "I'm here to stay on my own terms: Mumtaz - Times of India".
22. "Mumtaz". Archived from the original on 17 August 2009. Retrieved 17 November 2009.
23. "Saguni to show Mumtaz in a negative role".
24. Ma.Pandiarajan (17 June 2018). "பிக்பாஸ் போட்டியாளராக மும்தாஜ்!". Vikatan (in Tamil). Retrieved 17 June 2018.
25. "Bigg Boss Tamil 2; Mumtaj to be a part of the show - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 17 June 2018.