Mahima Chaudhry

Mahima Chaudhry is an Indian actress and a former model who appears in Bollywood films. Chaudhry did a few modeling assignments and appeared in several television commercials before venturing into films. She has won a Filmfare Award among other accolades. Her first breakthrough performance where she won rave reviews was Pardes (1997) as Ganga, the love interest of two men, Shah Rukh Khan and Apoorva Agnihotri.

Early Life

Mahima was born on September 13, 1973, in Darjeeling as Ritu Chaudhary. She attended Dow Hill in Kurseong till class X and later moved to Loreto College in Darjeeling.

First got noticed as a model for Pepsi, where she was over-shadowed by Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. Career launched by Subhash Ghai, who also launched Madhuri Dixit, ‘Meenakshi Seshadri’ and Manisha Koirala. Changed her screen name to Mahima as Subhash Ghai was superstitious about being successful with girls whose names start with M.

She made her acting debut in the 1997 film Pardes, for which she won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut. 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 (2005) and Sehar (2005), Pyar Koi Khel Nahin. 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.

Personal Life

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.