Isha Koppikar

The 1998 Hindi film Ek Tha Dil Ek Thi Dhadkan, directed by Shahrukh Sultan, is often stated to be Koppikar's first film, but there is no evidence the project was ever released.[2] Her career must therefore be said to have begun with the 1997 Telugu film W/o V. Vara Prasad, in which she appeared in a song with actor Vineeth. Her first movie in Tamil was Kadhal Kavidhai costarring Prashanth for which she won the Filmfare Best Female Debut Award. Her next Tamil movie was En Swasa Kaatre (1998) opposite Arvind Swamy, directed by K. S. Ravi, with music by A. R. Rahman followed by a cameo appearance in Praveen Gandhi's Jodi starring Prashanth and Simran. In 1999, Koppikar starred in the gangland movie Nenjinile starring Vijay and directed by S. A. Chandrasekhar.[3]

By 2000, Koppikar's sights were on Bollywood, but this did not stop her from appearing in three Kannada films with the ruling Sandalwood stars of the time: Hoo Anthiya Uhoo Anthiya with Ramesh, O Nanna Nalle with Ravichandran and Surya Vamsha opposite Vishnuvardhan, all box office successes.

After a brief appearance in Bollywood's Fiza and Rahul, she came back to the south in 2001 for Sundar C's Tamil project Kaathal Solla Vanthen the movie never took off.[4] Koppikar's last two films down South were Telugu comedy Prematho Raa starring Venkatesh and Simran, and directed by Uday Shankar, and Narasimha starring Vijayakanth.[5]

In 2000, Koppikar started her Bollywood career with a small role alongside Karisma Kapoor and Hrithik Roshan in Khalid Mohamed's Fiza and an item number appearance in Prakash Jha's Rahul. In 2001 she made her full-fledged Bollywood debut with Rajiv Rai's Pyaar Ishq Aur Mohabbat, starring Arjun Rampal and Sunil Shetty where she was paired with Shetty. Her next release was K. Raghavendra Rao's urban comedy Aamdani Atthani Kharcha Rupaiyaa opposite Govinda.[6]

In 2002, Koppikar appeared in an item number in Ram Gopal Verma's underworld movie Company starring Ajay Devgan, Vivek Oberoi and Manisha Koirala. The chartbusting item number choreographed by Ganesh Hegde earned her title of Khallas Girl. Another notable item number Ishq Samundar, in Sanjay Gupta's Reservoir Dogs remake Kaante starring Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt and Sunil Shetty, raised her profile higher. She also won the Stardust Award for the Most Exciting New Face for her Khallas number.[7]

Isha Koppikar walks the ramp for designer Pria Kataria Puri

Koppikar acted in five films in 2003. In Dil Ka Rishta, she starred opposite Arjun Rampal and Aishwarya Rai. Prawaal Raman's portmanteau film Darna Mana Hai saw her opposite Aftab Shivdasani. Chandraprakash Dwivedi cast her alongside Urmila Matondkar and Manoj Bajpai in the critically acclaimed Pinjar which went on to win the National Film Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration.[8] A brief role in J. P. Dutta's war movie LOC Kargil paired her opposite Sunil Shetty again. And in Harry Baweja's Qayamat: City Under Threat, she played one of three terrorists fighting off co-stars Ajay Devgan and Sunil Shetty; a role which earned her a Filmfare nomination in the Best Villain category.[9]

She had six releases in 2004. Both Mani Shankar's science fantasy Rudraksh and Kundan Shah's madcap comedy Ek Se Bhadkhar Ek teamed her with Sunil Shetty. In Krishna Cottage, she was cast opposite Sohail Khan for a creepy ghost story. Inteqam, directed by Pankaj Parashar and co-starring Manoj Bajpai, saw her revive the role played by Sharon Stone in the original Hollywood version: Basic Instinct. She made a cameo appearance in Kunal Kohli's Hum Tum with Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukerji. And played the leading role in Karan Razdan's – Girlfriend with Amrita Arora and Aashish Chaudhary. The controversial film depicting a lesbian relationship provoked a wide range of public protests.[10]

In 2005, she had four releases. Sangeeth Sivan's bawdy comedy Kyaa Kool Hai Hum with Anupam Kher, Ritesh Deshmukh and Tusshar Kapoor saw her getting nominated in three separate award ceremonies (IIFA, Zee Cine Award and Star Screen Awards) for best actor in a comedy role.[11] Two more comedies saw her make guest appearances: David Dhawan's Salman Khan vehicle Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya?, and Abbas–Mustan's whodunit, 36 China Town with Akshaye Khanna and Kareena Kapoor. She also starred in Ram Gopal Varma's gangster flick D: Underworld Badhshah alongside Randeep Hooda and Chunky Pandey.[12]

In 2006 Farhan Akhtar directed a remake of the Amitabh Bachchan hit Don: The Chase Begins Again with Shahrukh Khan in the lead. Koppikar was cast as Khan's girlfriend 'Anita'. Don's tremendous success however did not benefit her checkered career. Vicky Ranawat's Haseena Smart Sexy and Dangerous managed a release towards the end of 2006, but Jagdish A Sharma's murder mystery Gahraee[13] appeared directly on DVD while Hansal Mehta's Raakh and Jahnu Barua's Har Pal were shelved. Ram Gopal Varma's much discussed Shabri [9]- struggled to attract a distributor.

Koppikar's high-profile film of 2007, Nikhil Advani's Salaam-e-Ishq, had her sharing limited screen time with Sohail Khan. Later in the year came the haunted love triangle, Ram Gopal Varma's Darling, with Fardeen Khan and Esha Deol. Koppikar's first film release of 2008 was Atul Agnihotri's Hello, based on the best-selling novel One Night @ the Call Center by Chetan Bhagat. This was followed by Ek Vivaah... Aisa Bhi, a Rajshri Production directed by Kaushik Ghatak and co-starring Sonu Sood.[14]

Koppikar married Timmy Narang in 2009. She had two releases in 2010: Right Yaaa Wrong by Neeraj Pathak and Manoj Tiwari's Hello Darling. Both films fared poorly at the box office.[15][16]

Shabri, where she played a woman gangster of Mumbai, was eventually released in 2011.[17] Her performance was praised but the film only had a limited release and failed to make an impact at the box office.[18]

In 2013, she made her Marathi debut in Maat, directed by Manohar Sarvankar. She played the lead role opposite Sameer Dharmadhikari in a story revolving around an ambitious couple. In 2017, she makes her comeback in Telugu with Keshava followed by the Marathi film, FU: Friendship Unlimited. The following year, she is seen in the Kannada films, Looty and Kavacha.[19] She made her digital debut with the ALTBalaji web series titled Fixerr (2019) where she plays the role of sub-inspector Jayanti Javdekar, who lives in a modest house with her young son and husband.[20] Later, she was also seen in the crime thriller series Dahanam (2022).[21] She also acted in the thriller web series Suranga (2022) with Rakesh Bedi and Fredy Daruwala, co-produced by Kaushik Izardar and others.[22][23]