Filmfare Award for Best Actress

Superlatives

• Nutan and her niece Kajol, with five wins each, have maximum awards. Meena Kumari, Madhuri Dixit and Vidya Balan have four wins each. Vyjayanthimala, Jaya Bachchan, Shabana Azmi, and Alia Bhatt have three wins each. Eight actresses have won the award twice; in chronological order, they are Waheeda Rehman, Dimple Kapadia, Rekha, Sridevi, Karisma Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai, Rani Mukerji and Deepika Padukone.
• Madhuri Dixit and Rani Mukerji are the overall most nominated performers in the female acting categories, each with overall seventeen nominations. While Madhuri Dixit has fourteen nominations for Best Actress and three for Best Supporting Actress, and Rani Mukerji has ten nominations for Best Actress and seven nominations for Best Supporting Actress. Rani Mukerji has two wins for Critics’ Best Actress on top of that.
• Meena Kumari achieved an unusual feat by garnering all of the nominations in 1963 with no other actress being nominated. Uptil now, no other actress has equaled this record.
• Six actresses have won the award in consecutive years; in chronological order, they are Meena Kumari, Jaya Bachchan, Shabana Azmi, Rani Mukerji, Vidya Balan and Alia Bhatt.
• There has been only one tie in the history of this category. This occurred in 1974 when Jaya Bachchan and Dimple Kapadia were both given the award.
• Madhuri Dixit holds the record for maximum 14 nominations, followed by Meena Kumari with 12, Hema Malini and Kajol with 11, Rani Mukerji, Aishwarya Rai, Sridevi and Vidya Balan with 10 nominations. Dixit also holds the record for most consecutive nominations with 10 between 1989 and 1996. She thus also holds the record of maximum awards and maximum nominations in a single decade, with 4 awards and 10 nominations in 1990s.
• On occasion of an actress receiving multiple nominations in the same year and won in either of them: Shabana Azmi received four nominations in 1984 and holds the record for the highest number of nominations in a single year. Meena Kumari and Kajol had three nominations each in 1963 and 1999 respectively. Vyjayanthimala, Jaya Bachchan, Rakhee, Rekha, Shabana Azmi, Sridevi, Juhi Chawla, Madhuri Dixit, Aishwarya Rai, Preity Zinta, Rani Mukerji, Vidya Balan and Alia Bhatt each received two nominations in 1959, 1974, 1977, 1981, 1985, 1990, 1994, 1995, 2000, 2004, 2006, 2012 and 2017 respectively, where Deepika Padukone is the only actress who achieved this feat twice in 2014 and 2016 and won in both years.
• On occasion of an actress receiving multiple nominations in the same year but failed to win in any of them: Jaya Bachchan, Madhuri Dixit and Kareena Kapoor each received two nominations in 1972, 1996 and 2010 respectively, where Hema Malini is the only actress who achieved this feet twice in 1975 and 1976 but won in none of the years.
• Vyjayanthimala is the only actress to win the maximum awards, without ever losing, whenever been nominated. She received three awards among four nominations, being nominated twice in 1959 and once each in 1962 and 1965, winning in all three years. She was also the first actress to win both Best Actress Award and Best Supporting Actress Award as well as the first actress to receive multiple nominations.
• Tabu holds the record of maximum nominations without ever winning, with six, followed by Mala Sinha, Saira Banu, Manisha Koirala, Urmila Matondkar, Anushka Sharma and Sonam Kapoor with four nominations each. Jaya Prada has three nominations.
• Nutan, who won the award for the fifth time in 1979 at the age of 42, is the eldest winner, while Sharmila Tagore became the eldest nominee in 2006 at the age of 61. Dimple Kapadia, in 1973, became the youngest winner and youngest nominee at the age of 16.
• Meena Kumari was the most victorious actress with two wins in the 1950s. Nutan peaked with three wins in '60s. Jaya Bachchan ruled the '70s with two wins. Shabana Azmi and Rekha fetched two wins each in the '80s. In the '90s, Madhuri Dixit had four wins. Aishwarya Rai, Rani Mukerji and Kajol had two wins each in the 2000s which were the highest. Vidya Balan was the most successful actress of 2010s with four wins.
• Only once have siblings been nominated during the same year: Karisma Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor in 2002, and twice have cousins been nominated during the same year: Kajol and Rani Mukerji in 2007 and Priyanka Chopra and Parineeti Chopra in 2013. Among these, Kajol won in 2007.
• Karisma Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor are the only siblings to win the award, while Kajol and Rani Mukerji are the only cousins to win the award.
• Juhi Chawla became the first actress to win the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut & Filmfare Award for Best Actress in the year 1989 & 1994 respectively, followed by Preity Zinta, Kareena Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Vidya Balan, Deepika Padukone and Kangana Ranaut, with Balan winning the best actress award four times and Padukone winning twice.
• Fourteen actresses who have won both Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress awards include Vyjayanthimala, Raakhee, Padmini Kolhapure, Nutan, Dimple Kapadia, Rekha, Karishma Kapoor, Jaya Bachchan, Madhuri Dixit, Rani Mukerji, Kareena Kapoor, Kangana Ranaut, Priyanka Chopra and Shabana Azmi. Rani Mukerji is the first and only actress to win both these awards in the same year. Aishwarya Rai was nominated in 2001 for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress but did not win. Rani Mukerji was again nominated in 2008 for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress awards for ’’Laaga Chunari Mai Daag’’ and ’’Saawariya‘’ respectively but did not win. Also Anushka Sharma was nominated in 2016 for both Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress awards for NH10 and Dil Dhadakne Do respectively but did not win either.
• Nutan and Raakhee were nominated for both Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress awards for the same performance: Nutan for Saudagar and for Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki and Raakhee for Doosra Aadmi ; Nutan won Best Actress award for Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki.
• Eight Actresses have won the Best Actress awards in both the Popular and Critics Categories; in chronological order, they are Dimple Kapadia, Karisma Kapoor, Rani Mukerji, Kareena Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Vidya Balan, Kangana Ranaut and Alia Bhatt. Rani Mukerji is the first and only actress to win both these awards for the same role in the same year.
• Kareena Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra are the only there actresses to win Filmfare Awards in five different categories, while Kangana Ranaut has won in four different categories. All three actresses have won Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress and Best Female Debut awards once each. Kapoor won twice, while Chopra and Ranaut won once each in the Best Actress category. Kapoor has also won the Special Award, while Chopra has won the Best Villain Award respectively. Kapoor, Chopra and Ranaut, thus have 6, 5 and 4 Filmfare Awards respectively.
• Vidya Balan and Rani Mukerji are the two actresses nominated in the leading role of the same franchise. Balan was nominated for where she won in the former. Mukerji was nominated for

  Multiple nominees

• 14 Nominations: Madhuri Dixit
• 12 Nominations: Meena Kumari
• 11 Nominations: Hema Malini, Kajol
• 10 Nominations: Aishwarya Rai, Sridevi, Rani Mukerji, Vidya Balan
• 9 Nominations: Shabana Azmi
• 8 Nominations: Jaya Bachchan, Raakhee, Deepika Padukone, Kareena Kapoor
• 7 Nominations: Juhi Chawla
• 6 Nominations: Priyanka Chopra, Alia Bhatt

  Multiple winners

• 5 Wins: Nutan, Kajol
• 4 Wins: Meena Kumari, Madhuri Dixit, Vidya Balan
• 3 Wins: Smita Patil Vyjayanthimala, Jaya Bachchan, Shabana Azmi, Alia Bhatt
• 2 Wins: Waheeda Rehman, Dimple Kapadia, Rekha, Sridevi, Karisma Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai, Rani Mukerji, Deepika Padukone

  Winners and nominees

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s