Neena Kulkarni (neena Joshi) is an Indian actress. She began her acting career in the 1970s on the Marathi professional stage and Hindi experimental stage, along with fashion shows and modelling simultaneously. She met Pt Satyadev Dubey, her first guru, and went on to be a part of several Hindi productions under his direction. Mohan Rakesh's Adhe Adhure, Shankar Shesh's Mayavi Sarovar and Willie Russell's Educating Rita are a few of her prominent plays.
Dr. Vijaya Mehta chose her to play Shabbo in Anil Barve's Hamidabai Chi Kothi in 1978, and thus began her long journey with Bai into the remarkable world of Marathi theatre with Mahasagar and Savitri. She continues to assist Bai in her workshops. Mahasagar, Akasmat, Dhyani Mani, Vatvat Savitri, Dehabhaan, Prem Patra and Chaapa Kaata are some more of her successful award-winning (Natya Darpan, State Awards, Natya Parishad recognition) Marathi plays.
She directed the play Mahasagar in 2011, Educating Rita, Mahatma Versus Gandhi and Wedding Album - English plays. Her prominent feature films are Savat Mazi Ladki (state award best actress) Aai, Uttarayan, Shevri (for which she won the National Award and PIFF award as producer) Sari Var Sari (State award best supporting) and Bioscope: Dil-E-Naadan (Filmfare Best Supporting Actress). Badal, Nayak, Paheli, Guru, Hungama, Rann, Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani, Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai, Hasee Toh Phasee and Ghayal: Once Again are some of the other Hindi films she has acted in.
She is a column writer for Loksatta, called Antarang. She wrote for 3 years, and has been published as a book by the same name. Her prominent advertising commercials include Cadbury, Surf Excel, Parachute, Paytm, Mother Dairy and Maggie Masala. Her latest television show Yeh Hai Mohabattein recently completed 6 years of telecast. International projects : The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Rani (an 8 part series in the French language telecast on channel France Deux) Noces, a French Film shot in Luxembourg and premiered in Paris in Feb 2017. Her latest foray into digital content through a web series Breathe and short films Cuddly and Maa has won her much appreciation. Her latest release is the Short film Devi.
Neena's latest films in the Marathi language are Mogara Phulala directed by Shravani Deodhar, Kulkarni Chaukatla Deshpande, directed by Gajendra Ahire and Photoprem' directed by Aditya Rathi and Gayatri Patil.(Indian Panorama entry in IFFI and Marathi Competition entry in PIFF). Her upcoming films include Sachin Kundalkar’s Pondicherry and Mohit Takalkar’s Medium Spicy. Her latest outing on television is the bio series Swarajya Janani Jijamata wherein Neena Kulkarni had played the title role of this great lady and ruler.
