Mahima Chaudhry

Mahima Chaudhry (born Ritu Chaudhry on 13 September 1973) is an Indian actress and a former model who appears in Bollywood films. She made her acting debut in the 1997 film Pardes, for which she won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut.

Chaudhry was born Ritu Chaudhry in Darjeeling, West Bengal. Her father is a Hindu Jat from Kakripur village in Baghpat, Western Uttar Pradesh. Her mother is of Nepali origin and hails from Darjeeling. She attended Darjeeling based famous convent school till class X and later moved to Loreto Convent for her plus two levels. She completed her ISC board in 1988. She also attended Loreto College in Darjeeling. She won a local beauty pageant in Darjeeling before moving to Delhi for college. Initially in the 1990s, she appeared in TV advertisements (Wall's ice cream ad when the brand entered India) also 1st Pepsi Ad with Amir Khan and Ashwarya Rai, and was a VJ on music channels where she was noticed by Subhash Ghai. Ghai gave her a break in the movie Pardes, which was released in 1997. Ghai also renamed her due to some superstition. He considered M to be lucky for her.

During her acting career, Chaudry has played a variety of roles, starting with a village girl in Pardes (1997). Her other variety of roles include: Daag: The Fire (1999), where she played a nasty prostitute; 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 loving 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: Aapko... Ghar Tak (2005) she is an actress who will do anything to get into a big movie; and in Souten: The Other Woman (2006) she plays a desperate housewife who has an affair with her stepdaughter's boyfriend.

Next to doing a variety of films, she has also worked with numerous talented actresses, including Kajol, Shilpa Shetty, 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.

Most recently, Chaudhary has starred in a Knightsbridge Media Production film, Pusher, directed by Assad Raja, also starring comedian Mani Liaqat. She is currently shooting a thriller, MumBhai - The Gangsters, co-starring Om Puri and Sanjay Kapoor.