Mallika Sherawat Biography

In order to get the tag of India's sex symbol, Mallika Sherawat has virtually dropped her clothes. Earlier known as Reema Lamba, she started out as a small-time model and actress from Delhi, before she re-christened herself Mallika Sherawat.

A small-town girl (from Rohtak in Haryana), Mallika always had stars in her eyes and was determined to pursue the glamour profession and give it all it took to make it. Even though her conservative father was dead against her decision, Mallika defied his wishes and moved to Mumbai to carve a niche for herself in the big bad world of showbiz. Very few would know that she not only defied her father’s wishes, but also walked out of her marriage with Jet Airways pilot Captain Karan Singh Gill in Delhi to pursue her dream. Mallika, then called Reema, had married Karan soon after she completed her graduation from Miranda House, Delhi University and was working as a part time airhostess.

With good reason, Mallika displayed enough skin to make her one of the 'hottest' actresses in the Hindi film industry today. Mallika debuted in a small role in Vashu Bhagnani's Jeena Sirf Mere Liye, but it was Khwahish and her dare bare attitude with co-actor Himanshu Mallik that brought her fame in Bollywood.

At 21, Mallika was on the cover page of an international magazine, Snoop, and the Indian edition of Cosmopolitan. And all this before her debut film had even hit the marquee. Truly outstanding for a girl, who does not come from a famous film family and has no godfather.

Then Mahesh Bhatt's thriller Murder directed by Anurag Basu has put Mallika in an unconventional act. A story of a lonely married woman having an affair, the film had shades of celebration, of blossoming passion, love and insecurity. Murder became the top grosser of 2004 raising Mallika’s popularity immensely, this time people were taking note of her acting skills along with the bold scenes in the movie.

While the publicity machinery going berserk promoting Mallika’s next film Kiss Kiss Ki Kismat as a sizzling sexually simmering synthesis of the two Jat actors Dharmendra and Mallika Sherawat, the fact is the twosome play father-in-law and daughter-in-law in the film.

Barely two films old, Mallika has not only established herself in Bollywood, she is also going international having bagged Jackie Chan’s next film The Myth (earlier titled Time Breaker). Audacious, vulnerable, and with tons of oomph, Mallika has the code to hack the 'Succeed in Bollywood' password.

This girl from Harayana has surprised everyone by her immense and immediate success. If media attention is the barometer of stardom then Mallika Sherawat is by far the biggest star of Bollywood at the moment. The print medium and its visual counterpart are busy lapping up every pearl of wisdom that the ‘Murder Mademoiselle’ utters. She knows how to shock, and…well…the Indian middleclass loves to be shocked.