Madhuri Dixit-Nene in Devdas (2002)

Madhuri Dixit-Nene, 35, in Devdas (2002)
 

Stunning Rekha at the premiere of Ram Balram in 1980

Rekha, 26, attends the grand premiere of Ram Balram - a throwback to November 28, 1980. 

That blouse, that sari, the accessories, that makeup - this could be 2026, not a shot from 46 years ago!! 

 

Aishwarya Rai in and as Umrao Jaan

Aishwarya Rai, 33, in and as Umrao Jaan, J.P.Dutta's long, elegiac... bore. 

The character of Umrao Jaan spans various ages in the story (from young to mature), but Aishwarya's real-life age aligned with her portraying the adult courtesan phase. Ash delivered a graceful, dance-heavy performance in the film, often praised for her beauty and poise, even if the movie itself received mostly poor reviews. 

Rekha: Guiness record for the most covers in India: And the End of Film Glossy: Print Media Circles the Drain

 

As we publish these words, 90% of all Indian film magazines have gone down the drain; G magazine, Showtime, tinsel town, Gr8, Star & Style, Film World, MOVIE magazine, and the behemoths Cine Blitz and even the seemingly unshakable Stardust that originally launched in 1971, has shut shop.

The rise of digital media, gossip websites, and social media led to the decline of many print film glossies.

Notable Bollywood (Hindi film industry)-focused film magazines that have ceased publication or closed down over the years inclue;

• FilmIndia — A pioneering English-language monthly magazine founded in 1935 by Baburao Patel, known for its sharp film reviews and critiques. It ceased publication in 1961.
• PicturePost — A popular pocket-sized Hindi/English film magazine from earlier decades, famous among commuters for its movie stills and news; it went out of circulation long ago and is now a collector's item.
• Madhuri — A long-running Hindi fortnightly/weekly magazine focused on Hindi cinema, starting in the 1920s–1930s; it continued into the late 1980s before being renamed or discontinued.
• Stardust — One of the most influential gossip and Bollywood news magazines (English and Hindi editions), launched in 1971. It dominated in the 1970s–1990s but eventually shut down in print form (though its name has been associated with awards/events sporadically).
• Cine Blitz — A glossy Bollywood gossip and lifestyle magazine (often in English), popular in the 1980s–1990s for bold coverage; it closed down years ago amid the shift to online media.
• Star & Style — A prominent film magazine from the same era as Stardust and Cine Blitz, known for star interviews and glamour; it ceased publication.
• Showtime — Another glossy Bollywood magazine from the 1980s era that folded.
• Cinema Cinema — Various short-lived or niche Bollywood film titles from the 1980s–1970s that shut down.

Many others from the Urdu film magazine ecosystem (e.g., Shama, Nigar, or smaller ones) also closed by the late 1980s–2000s, though they were more broadly cinema-oriented.
Surviving titles like Filmfare, clinging on for dear life and Screen (now largely digital or limited) outlasted most, but the golden era of print Bollywood magazines largely ended by the early 2000s and the simultaneous rise of Social Media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and so on. With no more gatekeeps in film "journalism", the tabloid culture died in print but like insidious cancer cells, spread like wildfire online.
Which brings me to Rekha.
Unless there's a sudden resurgance of print media, Rekha holds the Guiness record of appearing in more magazine covers than any leading lady, in the history of Indian cinema.
The photogenic actress and famed beauty has appeared on the cover of every film magazine in India - several times over. She loved doing photoshoots with talented photographers, experimenting with fashion, makeup and hair to project an ultimate glamorous image, Rekha has posed, preened and pouted for so many magazine covers, we do not have a count for it. She's done more Filmfare covers, Cine Blitz, Stardust covers than any film star, bar none.
And as most film magazines have gone with the wind, she'll continue to hold the record. Contemporary film stars no longer have the star wattage of yesteryear ones, celebrity today is a fickle mantle; the audience gets bored of one star quickly. Rekha held the nation in her palm with her antics on screen - and off! Apart from appearing exquisitely on film, she also provided quotable quotes like no other star.
Fickle audiences on newsstands wanted something new and novel and the chameleon actress changed her style, wigs, makeup to ensure the audience never got bored of the same. Long before stylists, brand ambassadorship and the cottage industry in contemporary Indian fashion that's become this billion rupee behemoth. Rekha was mixing her foreign imported furs with classic, traditional temple jewellery.
Rifle through Pinterest or Instagram and find covers from the 1970s-2000s with Rekha on the cover and, collating them all into a chronological list will be a study of where contemporary fashion was in glamorous Bombay to glitzy Mumbai. Rekha obviously amped it up a bit more than what high society deemed necessary, but she was the blueprint of celebiryt fashion and makeup for decades.

TBT to 2003; Aishwarya Rai on the cover of Cine Blitz

 

The launch of Faces: A Great Book of Photographs of Bollywood Icons

 

At the launch of Faces, Gautam Rajadhyaksha's mighty tome dedicated to Bollywood portraiture, here's young Kajol, the late great Gautam da, Aishwarya Rai (pre Bollywood) and Jackie Shroff. 

Aishwarya Rai's Filmography: So Far... The Definitive Listicle

 

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan Filmography (Chronological Order)

Release Date	Film Title	Co-star(s)	Director	Music Composer	Box Office Verdict
January 1997	Iruvar (Tamil)	Mohanlal, Prakash Raj	Mani Ratnam	A. R. Rahman	Average
August 15, 1997	Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya	Bobby Deol	Rahul Rawail	Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan	Flop
April 24, 1998	Jeans (Tamil)	Prashanth	S. Shankar	A. R. Rahman	Hit
1999	Ravoyi Chandamama (Telugu - guest appearance)	A. Nagarjuna	Jayanth C. Paranjee	Mani Sharma	Flop
January 22, 1999	Aa Ab Laut Chalen	Akshaye Khanna	Rishi Kapoor	Nadeem-Shravan	Below Average
June 18, 1999	Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam	Salman Khan, Ajay Devgn	Sanjay Leela Bhansali	Ismail Darbar	Hit
August 13, 1999	Taal	Akshaye Khanna, Anil Kapoor	Subhash Ghai	A. R. Rahman	Semi Hit
April 5, 2000	Kandukondain Kandukondain (Tamil)	Mammootty, Ajay Devgn, Tabu	Rajiv Menon	A. R. Rahman	Hit
June 9, 2000	Josh	Shah Rukh Khan, Chandrachur Singh	Mansoor Khan	Anu Malik	Average
August 25, 2000	Hamara Dil Aapke Paas Hai	Anil Kapoor	Satish Kaushik	Sanjeev-Darshan	Hit
September 29, 2000	Dhai Akshar Prem Ke	Abhishek Bachchan	Raj Kanwar	Jatin-Lalit	Flop
December 28, 2000	Mohabbatein	Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan	Aditya Chopra	Jatin-Lalit	Blockbuster
2000	Mela (cameo)	Aamir Khan	Dharmesh Darshan	Anu Malik	Flop
2001	Albela	Govinda	Deepak Sareen	Jatin-Lalit	Flop
July 12, 2002	Devdas	Shah Rukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit	Sanjay Leela Bhansali	Ismail Darbar	Hit
2002	Hum Kisise Kum Nahin	Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgn	David Dhawan	Anu Malik	Flop
2002	Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam	Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan (cameo)	K. S. Adhiyaman	Various	Semi Hit
2002	23rd March 1931: Shaheed (special appearance)	Bobby Deol	Guddu Dhanoa	Anand Raj Anand	Flop
2002	Shakti: The Power (special appearance in song)	Shah Rukh Khan, Karisma Kapoor	Pasupuleti Krishna Vamsi	Ismail Darbar, Anu Malik	Flop
2003	Chokher Bali (Bengali)	Prosenjit Chatterjee	Rituparno Ghosh	Debojyoti Mishra	Average
January 17, 2003	Dil Ka Rishta	Arjun Rampal	Naresh Malhotra	Nadeem-Shravan	Flop
2003	Kuch Naa Kaho	Abhishek Bachchan	Rohan Sippy	Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy	Flop
January 23, 2004	Khakee	Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn	Rajkumar Santoshi	Ram Sampath	Average
August 11, 2004	Kyun! Ho Gaya Na...	Vivek Oberoi, Amitabh Bachchan	Samir Karnik	Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy	Flop
December 24, 2004	Raincoat	Ajay Devgn	Rituparno Ghosh	Debojyoti Mishra	Flop
2004	Bride & Prejudice (English)	Martin Henderson	Gurinder Chadha	Anu Malik	Average
2005	Shabd	Sanjay Dutt, Zayed Khan	Leena Yadav	Vishal-Shekhar	Disaster
2005	Bunty Aur Babli (special appearance in song)	Abhishek Bachchan, Rani Mukerji	Shaad Ali	Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy	Semi Hit
2005	The Mistress of Spices (English)	Dylan McDermott	Paul Mayeda Berges	Craig Pruess	Disaster
2006	Provoked (English)	Naveen Andrews	Jag Mundhra	A. R. Rahman	Disaster
2006	Umrao Jaan	Abhishek Bachchan	J. P. Dutta	Anu Malik	Disaster
November 24, 2006	Dhoom 2	Hrithik Roshan, Abhishek Bachchan	Sanjay Gadhvi	Pritam	Blockbuster
January 12, 2007	Guru	Abhishek Bachchan, Mithun Chakraborty	Mani Ratnam	A. R. Rahman	Hit
2007	The Last Legion (English)	Colin Firth, Ben Kingsley	Doug Lefler	Patrick Doyle	Flop
February 15, 2008	Jodhaa Akbar	Hrithik Roshan	Ashutosh Gowariker	A. R. Rahman	Semi Hit
June 6, 2008	Sarkar Raj	Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan	Ram Gopal Varma	Bapi-Tutul	Below Average
February 6, 2009	The Pink Panther 2 (English)	Steve Martin	Harald Zwart	Christophe Beck	Flop
June 18, 2010	Raavan	Abhishek Bachchan	Mani Ratnam	A. R. Rahman	Flop
June 18, 2010	Raavanan (Tamil)	Vikram, Prithviraj Sukumaran	Mani Ratnam	A. R. Rahman	Hit
October 1, 2010	Enthiran (Tamil) / Robot (Hindi)	Rajinikanth	S. Shankar	A. R. Rahman	Blockbuster
November 5, 2010	Action Replayy	Akshay Kumar, Aditya Roy Kapur	Vipul Amrutlal Shah	Pritam	Flop
November 19, 2010	Guzaarish	Hrithik Roshan	Sanjay Leela Bhansali	Sanjay Leela Bhansali	Disaster
2011	Bollywood: The Greatest Love Story Ever Told (Documentary)	N/A	Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Jeff Zimbalist	Various	N/A
October 9, 2015	Jazbaa	Irrfan Khan	Sanjay Gupta	Various	Flop
May 20, 2016	Sarbjit	Randeep Hooda	Omung Kumar	Various	Flop
October 28, 2016	Ae Dil Hai Mushkil (special appearance)	Ranbir Kapoor, Anushka Sharma	Karan Johar	Pritam	Hit
August 3, 2018	Fanney Khan	Anil Kapoor, Rajkummar Rao	Atul Manjrekar	Amit Trivedi	Flop
September 30, 2022	Ponniyin Selvan: I (Tamil)	Vikram, Karthi, Jayam Ravi	Mani Ratnam	A. R. Rahman	Blockbuster
April 28, 2023	Ponniyin Selvan: II (Tamil)	Vikram, Karthi, Jayam Ravi	Mani Ratnam	A. R. Rahman	Hit