Hema Malini

 
Hema Malini Chakravarty was born in a Tamil Iyengar family at 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 studies but liked history, her favourite subject in school. She was educated at the Andhra Mahila Sabha in Chennai.
Some of the popular Bollywood actors like Sanjeev Kumar and Jeetendra proposed to Hema Malini, In her authorized biography, Hema Malini also claimed she almost got married to Jeetendra, but later backed out. Unable to tolerate the rejection, Sanjeev Kumar was reportedly driven to liquor and remained unmarried till his death in 1985.

Hema fell in love with her co-star Dharmendra during the filming of Sholay. She eventually married him in 1980. Before they married both converted to Islam, since Dharmendra was already married to Prakash Kaur who refused to divorce him. Apart from Sholay, the Dharmendra-Hema pair appeared together in films like Seeta Aur Geeta, Dreamgirl, Charas and The Burning Train. After her marriage she became the step-mother of Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol, both popular actors in Bollywood. She has two daughters with Dharmendra, Esha Deol (born 1982) and Ahana Deol (born 1984). Her elder daughter Esha is a well-known actress in Bollywood while her younger daughter Ahana is an aspiring director who worked as an assistant director to Sanjay Leela Bhansali in his film Guzarish (2010) that starred Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai.
Hema Malini's niece is actress Madhoo who had starred in films Phool Aur Kaante (1991) and Roja (1992).

Hema Malini is a trained Bharatanatyam artist, a classical dance of India. Her daughters are also well trained in the same dance form and the three have performed together at several charity dance concerts.Hema Malini also had a natural ability of performing Odissi. Her refulgent smile eased her portrayal of a wide range of characters ranging from the fiery Narasimha to a graceful Lord SriRama on Ramcharitmanas, written by Tulasidas. In 2007, she performed in Mysore on the eve of Dussera, where she played the roles of Sati, Parvati and Durga.She had also performed at the Khajuraho Dance Festival along with her two daughters
She also directed and starred in the Television serial Noopur, in which she played the role of a Bharatanatyam dancer. She also 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 a period of three years. She also owns a dance school, Natya Vihar Kalakendra
In 2007, She was signed by Kent, a mineral water purifier systems as its brand Ambassador She is also one of the three brand ambassadors of Pothys, a textile showroom in Chennai, the other two being Sudha Ragunathan and Trisha Krishnan.