Her abilities as an actress are well known and she gave memorable performances in films like Drishti, Lekin, Prahar, Haque and Rudaali (for which she won the coveted National Award). Later, she became very choosy about her roles but proved her worth again with films like Dil Chahta Hai, Being Cyrus, and Benaras - A Mystique Love Story.
In the film Patiala House, which is on the verge of release, Dimple Kapadia stars opposite Rishi Kapoor, her first co-star
(Bobby), where she plays the character of Akshay Kumar’s mother. Though the film does not give her much scope to perform, she shines and proves that there is simply no one in the present generation of actresses who can match her realistic performances on screen.
Dimple Kapadia also appears in a major character of a leaf tree reader in Society, directed by Rahul Dholakia. She stars opposite Randhir Kapoor and really looks her character according to her director. The film offers her ample scope to express and modulate her dialogue delivery which she is efficient at. In Society, one will notice Dimple Kapadia emoting excellently, bringing back fond memories of her earlier performances in Drishti, Prahar and Rudaali.
She took it up as a challenge to act along with Amar Singh in her first ever Malayalam film, Mumbai Mithai. As far as reports go, Dimple Kapadia put in a lot of effort, learnt her language, and pronounced it with the right diction. She has not forgotten that in her only Bengali film, Antareen, based on a story by Sadat Hussain Manto, Mrinal Sen dubbed her voice by actor Anushwa Chatterjee. She was highly displeased by this and, for a while, her relations with Mrinal Sen were strained.
It has not been an easy task at all for Dimple Kapadia to switch over to alternate cinema with Drishti in 1990 from gross commercial ventures like Sagar, Kash and Aaj Ki Aurat.
She was really not confident about performing Sandhya, the female protagonist of Drishti. Once she did confess that Raj Kapoor, her mentor, appeared in her dreams and offered her a clean white chit on which was written in his own writing, Sandhya. This gave her a lot of inspiration and impetus to perform and after she broke down emoting, “Nikhil Don’t Go” in Drishti, director Govind Nihalini and co-star Shekhar Kapoor complimented her.
It is not known to many that even the likes of Satyajit Ray and ace cinematographer Subrata Mitra praised her performance in Drishti.
Dimple Kapadia is an instinctive actress, spontaneous and intelligent. She never follows method acting, as many actors today do. Her looks are her asset as well as limitation.
Her eyes convey romance and pathos brilliantly and her walking style shows a certain confidence rarely seen amongst present generation actresses. Of course, Dimple Kapadia can never be compared with the likes of Waheeda Rehman, Rakhee or Smita Patil, who rank far ahead of her as actresses. Dimple Kapadia is at her best in intense characters and her comic side is yet to be utilised.
She is a darling to work with if her character and director go well with her. Dimple Kapadia never fears to experiment and feels very comfortable working with new age cinema directors. Those who extracted the best out of her include Raj Kapoor, Govind Nihalani, Gulzar, Subhankar Ghosh and Farhan Akhtar.
The fresh innocent face in a collage of close-ups after the song Main Shayar To Nahin in Bobby ushered in a revolution in Hindi films. The teenage Bobby who stole countless hearts in 1973 has now matured into a seasoned actress.