OTTplay Awards 2022 - Know Your Winners: Nimrat Kaur wins Best Debut Female (Film) for Dasvi

Nimrat Kaur returned to Hindi movies after six years with Dasvi.

Nimrat Kaur

After a long time in the Hindi movies, we saw Nimrat Kaur in Dasvi. The actor plays the role of Bimla Devi, aka Bimmo, who becomes the Chief Minister after her husband, played by Abhishek A. Bachchan, gets jailed. For her performance in Dasvi, Nimrat won the OTTplay Awards 2022 in the Best Debut Female (Film) category.

In the amusing tale of Dasvi a corrupt politician named Gangaram Chaudhary (Bachchan) learns the magic and power of knowledge while imprisoned. The core of the social comedy is what happens next when the "illiterate neta" with a sharp tongue decides to educate himself.

About the winner:

Nimrat Kaur can be seen on American television and in Hindi movies. She started as a print model before transitioning to theatre acting. After making a few fleeting cameos, Kaur starred in Peddlers directed by Anurag Kashyap and shown at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. She then received critical acclaim for her breakout performance in the 2013 Cannes Film Festival's The Lunchbox, a drama co-starring Irrfan Khan.

In the fourth season of the American television series Homeland in 2015, Kaur played the recurring role of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agent Tasneem Qureishi. Later, she co-starred in the war drama Airlift with Akshay Kumar. Kaur started playing Rebecca Yedlin in the second season of the American drama Wayward Pines in 2016. In February 2020, she returned as a series regular for Homeland's eighth and final season.

Her nearly two-decade-long career:

Nimrat Kaur started working as a print model in Mumbai. She began as a theatre actor, performing in plays including Red Sparrow (2012), All About Women (2012), and Baghdad Wedding (2012) under the direction of Sunil Shanbag and Manav Kaul.

In a two-part music video for the songs Tera Mera Pyar by Kumar Sanu and Yeh Kya Hua by Shreya Ghoshal, Kaur made her debut the following year. Apurva Asrani, a writer-editor, directed the videos. She also appeared in TV commercials.

In the 2006 English movie One Night with the King which was filmed in Rajasthan, Kaur had her first acting role. Her first Hindi film, Peddlers (2012), was made by Anurag Kashyap. The movie received positive reviews when it was shown at Cannes.

For the epistolary romance drama The Lunchbox (2013), Kaur made a second trip to Cannes. The movie was a hit both critically and commercially. Kaur won praise for her portrayal as a lonely wife who strikes up a correspondence with a man played by Irrfan Khan.

In the fourth season of the American TV show Homeland in 2014, Kaur played ISI agent Tasneem Qureishi. She co-starred with Akshay Kumar in the war drama Airlift in 2016. Based on the civil evacuation of Indians stationed in Kuwait during the Iraq-Kuwait war, the film was released on January 22 to mostly favourable reviews. In 2016, Kaur started as Rebecca Yedlin in the American drama Wayward Pines Season Two.

Kaur played Captain Shikha Sharma in the Hindi-language online series The Test Case in 2017. In February 2020, she returned as a series regular for Homeland's eighth and last season.

Winning speech:

In her winning speech, Nimrat Kaur shared her excitement about being among the audience from different parts of the country. She said, "Of course, I have so many people to thank. But being an actor today is probably one of the most exciting times because you get to see so many amazing, diverse, and incredible faces and people in the same room. I've just seen Raveena Tandon, ma'am, for the first time in person in my life and I'm quite stunned, it has to be said."

While thanking the Dasvi team, Kaur stated, "A big thank you to Maddock Films for giving me this incredible opportunity, which I couldn't have seen myself playing as a part of. For Dino (Dinesh Vijan) for being such a game changer for actors like myself, for Tushar for being one of the most incredible people, and as promised, you are an actor's dream, so thank you for being so lovely. Poonam for being family-like and for being so warm and encouraging always. Thank you for all your love. Sharda, you're a rock star. I love you and everyone else. How can I forget Abhishek for being such an incredible and generous co-star? Thank you, Yami, for being so stunning and so incredible in the film. I wish I had more work with her."

Upcoming projects:

Nimrat Kaur will next be seen in Happy Teacher's Day which is a dark thriller co-starring Radhika Madan in the lead role.

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