Journey So Far
Bhawana Somaaya commenced her career in the late 70’s as Chief Reporter with Free Press Journal’s film weekly titled Cinema Journal then moved to Super as Special Correspondent. In 1981 joined Movie as Assistant Editor and in 1985 was promoted as Joint Editor. In 1989 launched zee magazine with Chitralekha Publication and continued as founding editor for over a decade. In 2000 joined as Editor Chief Screen, a film weekly of The Indian Express Group. In 2012 was appointed as Editor Chief Block Buster. Her involvement with Hindi Cinema has not always been as a commentator.
Critical of the unrealistic, stereotypical costumes of the Hindi film heroine, she had taken up a challenge from Shabana Azmi in the 80’s and turned costume designer for actor. Bhawana Somaaya did five films for Shabana –
- Masoom
- Aaj Ka Mla
- Kamyaab
- Bhavna
- Main Azaad Hoon
and one marathon teleserial for Deepa Sahi in Tamas
She is the recipient of several prestigious awards and has contributed columns to various publications like
- The Observer
- The Afternoon
- Janmabhoomi Pravasi
- Phoolchchab
- The Hindu
- The Hindustan Times
- Pioneer
- Newstime
- Sandesh
- The Hans india
- The Indian Express North American Edition
- Dainik Bhaskar (Hindi)
- Divya Bhaskar (Gujarati)
Bhawana Somaaya has been on the Advisory Panel of CBFC. She has to her credit twelve books in a span of 20 years which include
- Amitabh Bachchan – The Legend
- Salaam Bollywood
- Take 25 – Star Insights & Attitudes
- The Story so far
- Cinema – Images & Issues
- Hema Malini – Authorized Biography
- Fragmented Frames
- Krishna – The God who lived as Man (translation)
- Bachchanalia
- Amitabh Lexicon
- Mother Maiden Mistress
- Talking Cinema
- Once Upon A Time In India
- Keshava: A Magnificent Obsession
- Chalo Cinema
- Shaping of The Seed: The Ancient Wisdom of Garbh Sanskaar
- Letters To Mother: Translated from the Gujarati Saakshi Bhaav
- On Camera Off Camera—Pages from the Past
- Letters to Self translated from Gujarati ‘Aankh Aa Dhanya Che’
Bhawana Somaaya is a film critic, columnist and author. She has been writing on cinema for almost 50 years. She is the former editor of Screen and written biographies of superstars like Hema Malini and Amitabh Bachchan.
Her books are a point of reference for students studying cinema at Whistling Woods, Mumbai, Manipal University, Mangalore and JNU, Delhi.
She is a classical dancer, a broadcaster, a podcaster and author of 19 books.
She has translated our honourable Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi’s Gujarati books Saakshi Bhaav and Aankh Aa Dhanya Chhe into English as Letters to Mother and Letters to Self in 2020 and 2022 respectively.
She is the Entertainment Editor at 92.7 Big FM Radio Channel.
Somaaya was conferred with Padma Shri in 2017, an honorary Doctorate by Jagran Lake city University in 2021 and Kanak Nartan Puraskaar from Nalanda Nrityakala Mahavidyalay in 2022.
Her new book spanning more than 100 years is due for release soon.
