Bipasha Basu

Early life

Born on January 7, 1979 in New Delhi, India, Basu hails from a Bengali family. She is the second of three daughters to her parents, the elder being Bidisha, and the younger—Vijayeta. Although she was born in Delhi, her family later moved to Kolkata. According to her, she had come into modelling and acting quite by accident, because initially she had planned to study medicine.[2] Basu studied science till the 12th standard, and later took up commerce. Although, as pointed above, she intended to become a doctor, her aversion for dissections made her opt for chartered accountancy.[3] However, in 1996, she met well-known model Mehr Jessia in Kolkata; the latter suggested that Basu take part in the Supermodel of the World contest. She eventually participated, and won the contest.[2]

Career


After winning Ford's Supermodel of the World contest, Basu was flown to New York by the Ford Company, where she had a successful modelling career. Basu made her debut film in Abbas Mustan's Ajnabee, with Akshay Kumar, Bobby Deol and Kareena Kapoor. She played a married woman who goes all out to woo her husband’s married friend, and eventually won the Filmfare Best Female Debut Award for her performance. After a number film, next year in 2002, Basu starred in Vikram Bhatt's thriller Raaz. The film was a big commercial success and surfaced as one of the biggest hits of that year. For her performance in the film, she received her first Best Actress nomination at the Filmfare. Besides acting, Bips, as her friends call her, did the famous video "Tu" for Sonu Nigam's album, Kismat and made a guest appearance in Jay Sean's music video Stolen.[4] In 2006, she won popular acclaim for her Item number Beedi in the song Omkara. The song was a national hit, and Basu's pictuarization was appreciated, with her dancing steps being imitated by the Indian youth.[5]

Personal life

Bipasha with John Abraham

Basu is currently dating actor John Abraham, They have been dating since late 2002. She previously dated fellow Bollywood actors Milind Soman and Dino Morea. Even though Basu is a practicing Hindu and Abraham is a Christian, both families have accepted the couple. Basu has stated in an interview that though she was raised a Hindu, she believes that all religious groups deserve respect. Basu claims that she was harassed by organizers of the controversial 2006 India Day Parade in Edison, New Jersey. [6] In November 2007, U.K. magazine, Eastern Eye ranked basu on the top, as "Asia's Sexiest Women".[1]

Philanthropy


On January 10, 2007, Basu danced with sex workers at a charity drive in order to raise AIDS awareness in India and promote safe-sex.[7]