Bipasha Basu: From the Runway to Fitness DVDs

Bipasha Basu began in fashion modelling, became a lead actress in thrillers and horror, and then built a second career around fitness. Her Wikipedia biography records both. This piece follows it and leaves out its sections on relationships and net worth.

Delhi and Kolkata

According to the biography, Basu was born on 7 January 1979 to a Bengali family. Her father, Hirak, is a civil engineer, and her mother, Mamta, a homemaker. She lived in Delhi until she was eight and studied at Apeejay High School, then moved with her family to Kolkata, where she attended Bhavan's Gangabux Kanoria Vidyamandir in Bidhannagar and became head girl.

The modelling years

In 1996 she was spotted at a Kolkata hotel by the model Mehr Jesia Rampal, who suggested she try modelling. That year she won the Godrej Cinthol Supermodel Contest, organised by Ford, and represented India at the Ford Models Supermodel of the World contest in Miami. The actor Vinod Khanna, a judge, wanted to cast her in Himalay Putra (1997), but she felt she was too young and declined. She later appeared in a Calida commercial that was controversial and had protesters outside her house, and in 1999 in an advertisement with Vivek Oberoi that was banned from broadcast on Indian television.

She continued to model through her late teens, appearing on several magazine covers. After becoming an actress she still modelled occasionally, and in 2013 walked the ramp at Lakmé Fashion Week Summer-Resort for the designers Shantanu & Nikhil. Looking back, she said "modeling is a tough life."

Films

She debuted in Ajnabee (2001), in a negative role opposite Akshay Kumar, and won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut. Raaz (2002), her first lead, earned her a Filmfare Best Actress nomination and ranked third among the highest-grossing Hindi films of its year. Jism (2003) became a sleeper hit and brought her a Filmfare nomination for Best Villain. She starred in the top-grossing films No Entry (2005) and Dhoom 2 (2006), and in Corporate, Race, Bachna Ae Haseeno and All the Best. The biography is frank about the flops, including five releases in 2004 that all received scathing reviews and were commercial disasters. After horror titles such as Raaz 3D (2012), Creature 3D (2014) and Alone (2015), she took a hiatus, with a sole appearance in the series Dangerous (2020).

Fitness projects

The biography calls her an advocate of physical fitness. In 2005 she released her first fitness DVD, Bollywood Bodies, with John Abraham. In 2010 she released her first solo DVD, Love Yourself: Fit & Fabulous You, with a 60-day weight-loss routine and beginner, advanced and "easy tone" workouts. She was brand ambassador for Sugar Free, which helped promote it. In September 2011 she launched Break Free, a 30-minute dance routine, and in January 2014 Unleash, an advanced routine with plyometrics, focused on power, speed and bone strength. Later in 2014 many of her videos were released free on Shemaroo Entertainment's health-focused YouTube channel.

Stage and television

She has performed at Filmfare and IIFA ceremonies, and in 2013 on a concert series in Birmingham and London alongside Atif Aslam, Shaan and Malaika Arora. In 2015 she hosted the horror series Darr Sabko Lagta Hai.

A note on sources

Claims of the sort "scream queen" or "sex symbol" are media labels, not facts, and this article does not use them. The biography does not describe her own training routine beyond the DVDs. The plans described here are what the DVDs were marketed as, and are not medical or fitness advice.

Sources

*Cover photo: Laura Lee Dooley, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).*