Hema Malini

Hema Malini Chakravarthy was born into a Tamil speaking Iyengar Brahmin family in Ammankudi, Tiruchirappalli to V.S. Ramanujam Chakravarthy and Jaya Chakravarthy on 16 October 1948. Her mother was a film producer. Malini was the youngest of the three children and has two brothers.

She was not interested in academic studies but enjoyed history, her favourite subject in school. She was educated at Andhra Mahila Sabha in Chennai.She studied at DTEA Mandir Marg till class 10 but did not complete class 10 when she got acting role.

Some of Bollywood's most popular actors like Sanjeev Kumar and Jeetendra have proposed to Hema Malini. In her authorized biography, Hema Malini mentions she almost accepted Jeetendra's proposal, but later backed out. Unable to tolerate the rejection, Sanjeev Kumar was reportedly driven to alcoholism and remained unmarried till his death in 1985.

Hema Malini is a trained Bharatanatyam artist. Her daughters are well trained in the same dance form; the three have performed together at charity dance concerts. Malini is also trained in Odissi by Guru Kelucharan Mahapatra. Her refulgent smile eased her portrayal of a wide range of characters ranging from the fiery Narasimha to a graceful Rama in Tulasidas's Ramcharitmanas. In 2007, she performed in Mysore on the eve of Dussera, where she played the roles of Sati, Parvati and Durga.

In 2003, she played the role of Goddess Durga in television serial Jai Mata Ki, directed by Puneet Issar and aired on Star Plus. She then starred in the title roles of twin sisters in the Sahara One serial Kamini Damini. She directed and starred in the television serial Noopur, in which she played the role of a Bharatanatyam dancer.[31] She owned the editorship of New Woman, a Hindi woman's magazine. In 2000 she was appointed as the first-ever woman chairperson of the National Film Development Corporation for three years. She owns a dance school, Natya Vihar Kalakendra.

In 2007, she was signed by Kent, a mineral water purifier system, as its brand ambassador.[50] She is one of the three brand ambassadors of Pothys, a textile showroom in Chennai (the others being Sudha Ragunathan and Trisha Krishnan).