Mallika Sherawat
February 12, 2008
Sherawat’s birth name is Reema Lamba; she adopted the screen name of "Mallika", meaning "empress", to avoid confusion with other actresses named Reema. "Sherawat" is her mother’s maiden name. She uses her mother’s name as a tribute to her mother’s love and support.
Mallika became popular for her show of skin and several kisses(around 18) in her movie Khwahish released in 2003 which was, by Indian standards quite scandalous, as it featured seventeen on-screen kisses. Later that year, she starred in Murder again a film with raised questions, since she showed a lot of skin. For Murder, she was nominated in the ‘Best Actress’ category in the Zee Cine Awards. She has also been in the news for a short appearance in a Jackie Chan film, The Myth. She appeared at the Cannes film festival in a revealing outfit as part of the publicity for the film.
In July 2004, the Bollywood film producers’ union IMPAA temporarily blacklisted Mallika. Filmmaker Ramesh Sharma complained that she had committed breach of contract when she failed to turn up, as promised, for the filming of Kab Kyun Kahan (started in 1999).
