HOT HOT HOT

Try looking up Mallika Sherawat on google and you are deluged with links to dubious sounding sites with prompt you to give them an R Rating.  Here is one heroine who did not fight with tags like 'Hot' 'Sexy' 'Happening' 'Bold', rather she seems to relish them.  She was born Reema Lamba in Delhi on 28th October 72.  She completed her MA in Psycology from DU and was an airhostess with Jet Airways for a while.  During this time she was briefly married to a pilot Karan Gill.  In 2002 she landed up in Mumbai with bollywood dreams in her eyes.  Her first movie was Govind Menon's Khwahish.  The movie is famous in cine-lore as the '17 kisses flick'.  It was blatantly advertised as such.  There was precious little in this movie beside as good amount of skin show and lip-excercises.  Mallika was appreciated for her screen presence, even though the movie was panned.

PARDE KE PEECHE

Mallika was touted as a rustic girl from Haryana who had clawed her way to success despite her very conservative and disadvantaged background.  For a long while people believed this and were amazed at the chutzpah displayed by someone with a very rural background (egged on by the rural damsel she played in her first movie).

Mallika would have fallen by the wayside of the film-world like many starlets who play provocative roles in their first movie and are never heard of again.  But Mallika had Mahesh Bhatt in the pipeline.  Mahesh Bhatt wrote Murder which was directed by Anurag Basu.  In a typical Bhatt camp style, the movie was small, starring newbies or relatives of Bhatt, well made thriller.  It was based loosely on Unfaithful. Kunal Ganjawala sang 'Bheege honth tere' while Emran Hashmi seduced Mallika on a wide window ledge (a favorite lounging spot in most Anurag Basu films).  There were kisses and other hot stuff, winding up with a thriller ending to justify the title.  The movie was a surprise hit and well liked by all.

Mallika claimed that Emraan Hashmi was given the credit for the movie being a hit, whereas she was the one who was solely responsible for it.  Mahesh Bhatt broke off with Mallika and it is quite possible that this move hit her badly.

Mallika was hot property.  She was a motormouth who did not fail to oblige the press with outrageous quotes. She was seen as a hot sexy girl quite like one of Baywatch babes. People wanted to see her running in slow motion.

Her next movie was the much touted May-December romantic comedy starring her with Dharmendra.  The Govind Menon movie Kis Kis Ki Kismet.  The movie flopped at the box office despite its unusal pairing.

HOLLYWOOD HUNGAMA

About this time, Mallika was snapped up to play in a cameo opposite none other than Jackie Chan in his next kungfu flick, The Myth.  There was a lot of brouhaha about Mallika being in a hollywood film.  What happened to The Myth is now common knowledge. Mallika was in the movie for about eight minutes, but viewers agree that those eight minutes were the best part of the film.  Mallika was built up and then brought down for the movie by the press, saying Jackie Chan cast her because of her voluptous looks.  However, fact is, Mallika did have an good cameo and went all the way to Cannes to promote the movie, where she wore revealing clothes and had a lot of fun blowing kisses at the shutterbugs.

After the aging Dharmendra, the aging Rekha was withdrawn from seclusion to play Mallika's aunt in Bachke Rehna Re Baba.  The aunt and neice duo go around seducing and cheating several men till Mallika falls in love and feels it is time to end the game.  The indefatigable Govind Menon was back again with a bad comedy again.  The movie did not do well.

The next year was better for Mallika.  In Shaadi se Pehle she plays a temptress to Akshay Khanna who is nervous about settling down with his fiance Ayesha Takia.  The movie was better than the other movies that she had done, save Murder. But still, the movie was not a hit.

THE BEAUTY AND THE GEEK

Saket Chaudhry's debut movie Pyaar Ke Side Effects was a different ballgame.  It was about a commitment phobic who gets nervous when his long time girlfriend proposes to him, in the middle of an exciting cricket match.  It teemed Mallika with Rahul Bose.  It was the classic coming together of the beauty and the dorky geek.  This well made movie had several hilarious gags and situations.  The movie was well received and Mallika finally was seen as something more than a hot bod.  Her comic timing was lauded and she looked good as a normal middle class working girl. 

In Guru she had a sizzling dance 'Maiyya Maiyya' and that was it.  Himesh Reshammiya's debut movie, saw Mallika in a negetive role, that of a girl who is smitten by Himesh.  Now that must have called for good acting.  Aap Ka Saroor sank, but Mallika was seen all over the television in a green bikini dancing to 'Mehbooba Mehbooba'.  No doubt, that was the best part of the movie.

AAGE KI SOCHO

Several more movies of hers are slated for a release.  Mallika burst into the movie world rather late in life.  She is getting older, and needs to find a niche for herself soon.  Pretty faces are a dime a dozen and she needs to showcase her talent (which cannot be denied) to make a name for herself.

Here's hoping that the next few years bring her plenty of fame and fortune, and she manages to prove that Delhi girls can make it big in the movies too.

GOSSSSSIP

Her initial press releases said that she was a girl from rural Haryana were bust when it was discovered that she was actually a Delhi girl who held a degree in Psycology from Miranda House, DU, a prestigious college.  Later the news swept around that she was actually a divorcee.  Then there was speculation about her real age.

Her first ever screen appearence was in a Surjit Bindarakhia music video 'Lak Tunu'

She was offered a nude centrespread and a playboy cover feature, but she refused fearing repercussions on her career in the Hindi film industry.

She danced in a body hugging suit and a bikini in a nightclub on New Year's eve. A disgruntled gentleman tried to lodge a complaint with police alleging obscene behaviour on her part.  But the complaint was waved away.

She took 1.5 crore for her short role in Aap Ka Suroor, making her one of the most expensive item girl's ever.

There is no denying that she is men's favorite pin-up girl.

FILMOGRAPHY

• Unveiled (2008) (pre-production)
• Fauj Mein Mauj (2007) (filming) .... Sunehri Dhanda
• Dasavatharam (2007) (post-production) .... Jasmine
• Welcome (2007/I) (post-production) .... Ishika
• Aap Kaa Surroor: The Moviee - The Real Luv Story (2007) .... Ruby James
• Guru (2007) .... Jhumpa
• Pyaar Ke Side Effects (2006) .... Trisha
• Darna Zaroori Hai (2006) .... Hitchhiker
• Shaadi Se Pehle (2006) .... Sania
• Bachke Rehna Re Baba (2005) .... Padmini/alka/Meera
• The Myth (2005) .... Indian Princess
• Kis Kis Ki Kismat (2004) .... Meena Madhok
• Murder (2004) .... Simran Saigal
• Khwahish (2003) .... Lekha Khorzuvekar
• Jeena Sirf Merre Liye (2002) .... Sonia