Mallika Sherawat took her mother's name and chased Hollywood from Bollywood
Born Reema Lamba in a Haryana village, she renamed herself Mallika, meaning empress, and took her mother's maiden name, Sherawat. Bold roles made her a Bollywood sex symbol, a Cannes appearance had Time's critic calling her the next big thing, and she tried harder than most Indian stars to break into Hollywood.
Sherawat was born on 24 October 1976 in Moth, in the Hisar district of Haryana, into a Jat family. She chose Mallika to avoid being confused with other actresses called Reema, and says she uses Sherawat in gratitude for her mother's support. Early in her career she described her family as deeply conservative and obstructive; her relatives disputed that, calling it a story crafted to cast her as a small-town girl made good. Relations were strained for a while but have since been repaired. She studied philosophy at Miranda House, Delhi University, and before films she appeared in commercials alongside Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan.
The breakthrough came with Khwahish in 2003 and then Murder in 2004, a film modelled on Hollywood's Unfaithful that became one of that year's biggest hits and earned her a Zee Cine Awards nomination. The romantic comedy Pyaar Ke Side Effects in 2006 won her warm reviews, and Welcome in 2007 was a major box-office success. Her largest commercial hit to date, though, was Dasavathaaram in 2008. She reportedly charged 15 million rupees for a ten-minute guest spot in Aap Ka Suroor, and became well known for item numbers.
International work began with The Myth in 2005, opposite Jackie Chan. In 2009 she starred in Hisss, a US-India co-production directed by Jennifer Lynch and based on the legend of the Naga; she promoted it at Cannes in 2010 with live snakes. In Politics of Love, released in 2011, she played an Obama campaign volunteer. Los Angeles made her an honorary citizen on 14 August 2009.
Off screen she has campaigned on women's rights, speaking at a United Nations NGO conference in 2014. At Cannes in 2018 she spent twelve hours locked in a cage to back the charity Free A Girl India.
Source: Mallika Sherawat
