Jaya Bhaduri was the first to break the mould of the conventional Hindi film heroine. A petite, demure girl-next-door with a well-chiselled face but awkward demeanour, she was the antitheses of the stereotypical heavy-set, sari-clad heroines of the ‘50s and the ‘60s.Yet she made an enduring impact on the audiences to become one of the most sought-after stars of her time, who could carry a film on her slender shoulders, as evidenced in her early films centered around her effervescent persona. A gold medalist in acting from the FTII, Pune, Jaya was actually a Satyajit Ray discovery. After a chance encounter, he had cast her in his celebrated classic Mahanagar  when she was barely 15. She was rediscovered in Mumbai by Hrishikesh Mukherjee in his Guddi (1971), where she played the unusual role of a star-stuck teenager in love with her screen idol played by Dharmendra. Playing a 16-year-old at the age of 23 with great elan, Jaya achieved instant stardom.. The box office success of Guddi was followed by a series of hits, like Uphaar (1971), Jawani Diwani (1972), Bawarchi (1972), Parichay (1972), Annadaata (1972), Piya Ka Ghar (1972), Koshish (1972), Anamika (1973) and Abhimaan (1973). And Jaya became the most sought-after actress of the time. Curiously, it was Jaya whom megastar Rajesh Khanna feared at the peak of his career, as she had begun eating into his phenomenal fan following, long before Amitabh Bachchan wrested the crown from the superstar. A brilliant actress, she left an indelible mark in every role she was cast in, like in that brief, ‘silent’ role even in a mammoth multi-starrer like Sholay (1975).

Jaya’s extraordinary success story created a niche for plain-looking girls like Shabana Azmi, Zarina Wahab and Rameshwari. She quit films after her marriage to Amitabh Bachchan, whom she had been seeing from her Guddi days. She did stage a comeback in 1981 to act in Yash Chopra’s Silsila to co-star Amitabh and Rekha, but slipped into the background again. She did return again 18 years later  in a powerful character role in Govind Nihalani’s Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa (1999). She followed it up with Fiza, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, Kal Ho Naa Ho, Laaga Chunari Mein Daag and Love Songs.

In the new millennium, Jaya Bachchan decided to extend her career into politics. Currently, she is a Samajwadi Party MP and the Chairperson of the U.P. Film Development Corporation.