Ice Maiden Meenakshi Sheshadri was Bollywood box office gold in the late ‘80s, ruling the roost films like Hero, Meri Jung and Damini. She said goodbye to glamour and moved to USA where she now lives with her husband and 2 kids. On her birthday, we look at her contribution to India cinema
Ice Maiden Meenakshi Sheshadri was Bollywood box office gold in the late ‘80s, ruling the roost with films like Hero, Meri Jung and Damini. She said goodbye to glamour and moved to USA where she now lives with her husband and 2 kids. On her birthday, we look at her contribution to India cinema
Tamilian Meenakshi was born Shashikala Sheshadri in Jharkhand where her father was posted
She was attracted to filmdom even as a child. At age 18 she won the Miss India pageant and Bollywood soon came calling
Her first role was opposite Manoj Kumar's brother Rajiv Goswami in the movie Painter Babu (1982)
Painter Babu bombed but Bollywood sat up and took notice. Her next role came by way of filmmaker Subhash Ghai, opposite Jackie Shroff
Meenakshi played the simple and beautiful Radha in Hero. Her role was well-received as the movie busted the box office.
From there it was all south as her next few films - Awara Baap, Hoshiyar, Paisa Yeh Paisa, Love Marriage, and Do Gulab – were dud or at best, average
Things looked up with Bewafai, Meri Jung, Shahenshah, Ghayal, Jurm and Damini, all of which brought her either box office success or critical praise
Movies like Ganga Jamuna Saraswathi, Gharana, Joshilaay and Yash Chopra's Vijay established Meenakshi, as a legitimate movie star
Her last film was Rajkumar Santoshi's Ghatak (1997) opposite Sunny Deol.
In her 15 years in Bollywood she made about 80 films and worked with the best and brightest of the industry, among them Amitabh Bachchan, Madhuri Dixit, Rajesh Khanna, Vinod Khanna and Rajinikanth.
Besides Hindi, she has also made regional movies in Tamil and Telugu.
She married investment banker Harish Mysore, and as reports suggest, has settled in USA with two kids - daughter Kendra and son Josh.
Rumour has it that director Rajkumar Santoshi was in love with her and had asked her to marry him - a proposal that Meenakshi turned down.
A gifted dancer, Meenakshi Sheshadri now teaches various forms of Indian classical dances to students in Sugarland, Texas.
