Mallika Sherawat

Mallika Sherawat was born on 24 october(though the year is unknown) to Reema Lamba in Rohtak, Haryana . Mallika was born in the family of Seth Chhaju Ram, a leading Jat philanthropist. 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 has stated that she uses her mother's maiden name because of the support that her mother has provided her. Although relations with her family were strained when she entered the film industry, now Sherawat's family have accepted her career choice and reconciled their relations.

Sherawat went to school at Delhi Public School, Mathura Road. She has obtained a degree in philosophy from Miranda House, Delhi University.During the initial days of her career, she claimed to have come from a very conservative small town family, and that she faced many hurdles from her family in pursuing her career.However, Mallika's family has refuted this as a story created by her to give her an aura of a small town rustic girl who made it big in Bollywood. It has been reported that she was married for a short while to a Jet Airways pilot Captain Karan Singh Gill.

In 2009, Sherawat starred in a Hollywood film named Hisss, co-starring Irrfan Khan and directed by Jennifer Lynch. The film, based on the legend of Nāga, is an independent co-production between the United States and India. Endeavour Independent has bought the distribution rights of Hisss. Sherawat promoted the film with live snakes at the Cannes Film Festival 2010.Hisss was released in all major Indian languages on 22 October 2010.

Sherawat starred in another Hollywood film, Politics of Love, aka Love, Barack, directed by William Dear.She plays Aretha Gupta, a devoted local Obama volunteer coordinator. The film is a romantic comedy set during Barack Obama's campaign for the US Presidency. First look of Love, Barack was unveiled by Sherawat at Cannes 2010. It was released in 2011.

Sherawat won the 2008 Renaissance Artist Award at the 16th Annual Diversity Awards held in California. On 14 August 2009, Sherawat received a career recognition Honorary Citizenship of Los Angeles for her career achievements and charitable efforts.