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Bipasha Basu
Bipasha Basu at the launch of Flyte Scooter and Calendar (2007).
Born	January 7, 1979 (1979-01-07) (age 29) Delhi, India
Occupation	Film actress, model
Years active	2001 – present
Domestic partner(s)	John Abraham (2002 – present)
Official website
Awards won Other awards Best Female Debut 2002: Ajnabee

Bipasha Basu (Bengali: বিপাশা বসু , Hindi: बिपाषा बासु) (born January 7, 1979) is an Indian Bollywood actress and model. She was the winner of the Ford's Godrej Cinthol Supermodel contest for 1996 and is currently one of the mainstream actresses in Bollywood. She is often cited by popular magazines and newspapers as one of Asia's sexiest celebrity women.^[1]

Early life

Basu was born in New Delhi, India, into 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 at Bhavan's Gangabux Kanoria Vidyamandir and later took up commerce at The Bhawanipur Gujarati Education Society College in Kolkata where she also did modelling and rampshows partime. 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 Godrej Cinthol Supermodel contest. She eventually participated, and won the contest.^[2]

Career

After winning the Ford Godrej Cinthol contest, Basu was flown to New York by the Ford Company, where she had a successful modelling career.^[2]

Basu made her film debut 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.

In 2002, Basu starred in Vikram Bhatt's thriller Raaz. The film was a big commercial success and surfaced as the biggest hit of that year.^[4] For her performance in the film, she received her first Best Actress nomination at the Filmfare. One review in The Tribune noted, "...it is Bipasha Basu who steals the show with her fine performance."^[5]

Besides acting, Bips, as she is fondly called, did the famous video "Tu" for Sonu Nigam's album, Kismat back in her early days before she became an actress. She also made a guest appearance in Jay Sean's music video Stolen.^[6]

In 2006, she won popular acclaim for her performance in an Item number during the song Beedi in the film Omkara. The song was a national hit, and Basu's pictuarisation was appreciated.^[7]

In 2008 Basu starred in Race, her second collaboration with duo Abbas Mustan, with whom she debuted in Bollywood. Co-starring Saif Ali Khan, Akshaye Khanna, Anil Kapoor and Katrina Kaif, the film performed well at the box office, and Basu's performance was appreciated by critics. Taran Adarsh of indiaFM described her performance as "her best work so far. She’s superb".^[8]

Personal life

Basu with boyfriend John Abraham at the launch of the Filmfare magazine (2007).

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.

In 2006, Basu claimed to have been harassed by organizers of the India Day Parade in Edison, New Jersey. Basu was initially scheduled to lead the parade on August 13, 2006. Basu eventually appeared on stage late, according to her, because of the harassment. She said, "I wanted to attend the parade, but I could not." She explained that she was harassed physically and mentally in the car by two people who were taking her to the parade.^[9]

In November 2007, UK magazine Eastern Eye named Basu the "Sexiest Woman in Asia".^[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.^[10]

Filmography

Awards and honours

Main article: List of Bipasha Basu's awards and nominations

See also

• List of Indian movie actresses

References

External links

• Bipasha Basu at the Internet Movie Database