Hema Malini, the original ‘Dream Girl’ holds a special place in the hearts of her fans. The actress has featured in several blockbusters and played many iconic characters, including ‘Basanti’ in ‘Sholay’. Hema Malini celebrates her 74th birthday today, October 16.

Born in 1948, she is the youngest child of VS Ramanujam Chakravarthy and Jaya Chakravarthy, who was a film producer.

Debut

Hema Malini started her career in 1961 as a dancer in a Tamil film as she was a proficient classical dancer of Bharatnatyam. However, her acting debut came in 1968 with Raj Kapoor’s movie ‘Sapno Ka Saudagar’.

Producer B Ananthaswami found Hema Malini to be the perfect fit for the film that he was making with Raj Kapoor. Ananthaswami also became a godfather figure to Hema Malini, and he was the man responsible for giving Malini the name ‘Dream Girl’.

She then went on to star in close to 155 movies and produced and directed two movies, and directed a TV serial in her career. Hema featured in some of the greatest hits of the generation including films like ‘Sholay’, ‘Kranti’, ‘Andha Kanoon’ and ‘Baghban’.

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Hema Malini got married to actor Dharmendra on August 21, 1979, and the couple has two daughters, actress Esha Deol and Ahana Deol.

In her career, she bagged 11 nominations for the Filmfare Award and won the Best Actress award for 'Seeta Aur Geeta' in 1973. She was also awarded the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993.

In 2013, for her contribution to Indian cinema, she received the NTR National Award from the Government of Andhra Pradesh.

Later from 2003 to 2009, she was a Rajya Sabha MP. In 2014, the veteran actress was elected to the Lok Sabha from Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, as a Bharatiya Janata Party candidate.

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(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)