Mahima Chaudhry

Mahima Chaudhry
Mahima in 2013
Born	Ritu Chaudhury (1973-09-13) 13 September 1973 Darjeeling, West Bengal, India[1]
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1997–2010 2015–present
Spouse(s)	Bobby Mukherjee (m. 2006; div. 2013)
Children	1

Mahima Chaudhry (born 13 September 1973) is an Indian actress and a former model who appears in Bollywood films. After winning the Miss India in 1990, Chaudhry did a few modelling assignments and appeared in several television commercials before venturing into films. She has won a Filmfare Award among other accolades.

She made her acting debut in the 1997 film Pardes, for which she won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut.^[2] She rose to prominence by featuring in commercially successful films including Daag (1999), Dhadkan (2000), Kurukshetra (2000), Dil Hai Tumhaara (2002), Baghban (2003) among others and received critical recognition for her performances in Dil Kya Kare (1999), Lajja (2001), Saaya (2003), Dobara and Sehar (both 2005). After appearing in Gumnaam in 2008 she took a break from acting and made a comeback with Dark Chocolate in 2016.

In addition to acting in films, she has participated in concert tours and stage shows, and featured as a talent judge for the 2014 reality show Ticket To Bollywood. She was married to Bobby Mukherjee with whom she has a daughter.

Early and personal life

Ritu Chaudhry was born in Darjeeling. She attended Dow Hill in Kurseong till class X and later moved to Loreto College in Darjeeling.^[3] Initially in the 1990s, after winning Miss India, she appeared in TV ads, of which the most famous was for Pepsi, with Aamir Khan and Aishwarya Rai. She was a VJ on music channels, where she was noticed by Subhash Ghai. Subhash Ghai gave her a break in the movie Pardes, which was released in 1997. The movie was successful and won many awards including the Filmfare award for best debut.

She dated Indian tennis player Leander Paes before she broke up with him due to his affair with then-married Rhea Pillai.^[4] She married architect businessman Bobby Mukherji in 2006. She has an 8-year-old daughter Ariana from her marriage. But things didn't go the way she had planned. She separated from Mukherji in 2013. Their hush hush wedding was steady until 2011 when reports came that the couple are staying separately due to incompatibility and differences. In early 2015 she was in the news for having a Swiss bank account.^[5]

Acting career

Mahima Chaudhry in April 2013

In 1990 she won Miss India and after that she started her acting career. Chaudhry has played a variety of roles, starting with a village girl in Pardes (1997). Her other roles were in Daag: The Fire (1999), where she played a dual role; in Pyaar Koi Khel Nahin (1999) she played a widow forced to marry her brother-in-law; in Dhadkan (2000) she is a loving friend of a man who is madly in love with another woman: in Deewane she plays a singer in love with a thief: in Kurukshetra she plays the stubborn wife of a police officer: in Lajja she plays a young bride forced to fight dowry; in Yeh Teraa Ghar Yeh Meraa Ghar (2001) she plays a stubborn tenant who will not give up her home at any cost; in Om Jai Jagadish she is the loving homemaker; in Dil Hai Tumhaara she is the sister who would do anything for her sister's happiness; in Dobara she is the frustrated housewife; in The Film she is a desperate struggling screenwriter; in Zameer: The Fire Within she's a paralytic dancer, in Film Star she is an uptight arrogant fading actress; in Home Delivery (2005) she's a South Indian superstar; and in Souten: The Other Woman (2006) she plays a desperate housewife who has an affair with her stepdaughter's boyfriend.

Next to doing many films, she has worked with talented actresses, including Kajol, Shilpa Shetty, Amisha Patel, Urmila Matondkar, Manisha Koirala, Raveena Tandon, Rekha, Preity Zinta, Tabu, Padmini Kolhapure, and Hema Malini. When she was asked about this, she responded by saying that she enjoyed working with other actresses, and she expressed her opinion to work with Juhi Chawla, her favorite actress.

In 2010, Chaudhary starred in a Knightsbridge Media Production film, Pusher,^[6] directed by Assad Raja, also starring comedian Mani Liaqat. She also worked in the thriller Mumbhaii - The Gangster, co-starring Om Puri and Sanjay Kapoor.

Filmography

TV shows

• Ticket to Bollywood (judge) (NDTV Prime)

Awards and nominations

See also

• List of Indian film actresses

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mahima Chaudhry.

• Mahima Chaudhry on IMDb