Early Life and Family
Hema Malini Chakravarthy was born into a Tamil Iyengar family in 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 academic studies but enjoyed history, her favourite subject in school. She was educated at Andhra Mahila Sabha in Chennai.She studied at DTEA Mandir Marg till class 10 but did not complete class 10 when she got acting role.
Some of Bollywood's most popular actors like Sanjeev Kumar and Jeetendra have proposed to Hema Malini. In her authorized biography, Hema Malini mentions she almost accepted Jeetendra's proposal, but later backed out. Unable to tolerate the rejection, Sanjeev Kumar was reportedly driven to alcoholism 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, they both converted to Islam, since Dharmendra was 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 1981) and Ahana Deol (born 1984). Her elder daughter Esha is a well-known actress in Bollywood who married a diamond merchant Bharat Takhtanj, on 29 June 2012: while her younger daughter Ahana is an aspiring director who worked as an assistant director to Sanjay Leela Bhansali for his film Guzarish (2010).
Hema Malini's niece is actress Madhoo who had starred in films Phool Aur Kaante (1991), Roja (1992) and Annayya (1993).
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