Malaika Arora - Biography

Malaika Arora is a famous Indian model, actress, dancer, and one of the most well-known celebrities of Bollywood. She is the ex-wife of an Indian actor and producer of the Dabangg movie series Arbaaz Khan. She was born on 23^rd October 1973 in the Thane area of Mumbai, Maharashtra. She is a fitness devotee, a well-established dancer, and a fashion icon. She came into the limelight from her mesmerizing performance in the song ‘chhaiya chhaiya’ in the movie Dil Se, with Shah Rukh Khan.

Personal Life and Education

Parents

She was the elder daughter of Anil Arora and Joyce Polycarp. Her father was a Punjabi, working in the Indian Merchant Navy and her mother was a Malayali. She moved to Chembur (an area in Mumbai) at the age of 11 years, after the divorce of her parents. She also has a sister named Amrita Arora, who is also a Bollywood actress.

Education

Till 9^th grade, she studied at Holy Cross High School in Thane.  Then she took admitted to Swami Vivekanand School in Chembur and completed her secondary education. After school, she went for college education at Jai Hind College but could complete that because of her modelling career.

Marriage

In 1998, Malaika became the wife of an Indian actor-director and producer Arbaaz Khan, because of that before her divorce, she used to write her name as Malaika Arora Khan. Both of them became parents of their son Arhaan Khan on 9^th November 2002. Later in May 2017, they got divorced officially, due to internal issues, and the custody of Arhaan remained with Malaika, and Arbaaz Khan was given visiting rights to his son.

Scriptwriter Salim Khan was her former Father-in-law, whereas actors Salman Khan and Sohail Khan were her former Brothers-in-law.

Affairs

In 2016, rumours regarding her closeness with actor Arjun Kapoor broke out in the media. Later the couple confirmed the news themselves. Now she is very outspoken about her relationship with him despite being trolled on social media about this

Career

Malaika is a grand package of talent, right from modelling, dancing, acting, hosting TV programs, judging dance and reality shows, and also the jury of various modelling shows. Here are the glimpses of her career categorically:

Modelling                                           

She started her modelling career when she was just 17 years old when photographer Suresh Natarajan had some of her photographs which he handed over to Suma Varghese, who was the editor of Society Magazine at that time, and then he gave her the chance to feature on the cover page of the April edition of the magazine in 1993.  Then she did multiple modelling and advertisement projects for different brands like Mafatlal, Tanishq, and, Pearl Pet.

Malaika choose modelling as means to earn pocket money for herself, after a few projects she started liking the whole process as she was earning decent money and let her travel very much, which made modelling her first love. Even now she says, “I like being called a model than actor or dancer, it is the thing that I like most”

 In Item Songs

Item song was the genre that gave Malaika the highest success. She did her first item song in 1998 in the song ‘chhaiya chhaiya’ of Dil Se, in which she featured with Shah Rukh Khan. It was the best debut partner she can think of and the song also was a blockbuster hit, and people love it now also. Then in 1999, she had an item number on the song Pyar Ke Geet in the film Dholna, she did another item number in the movie Bichhoo on the ‘Ek wari tak le’ in the year 2000.

After that, there is a list of her item songs like

Acting

She did a couple of cameo roles in movies like Maa Tujhe Salaam, Hello India, and Happy New Year. She got full roles in Kaante, Housefull, and EMI. Her acting career did not flourish very well, so she focussed on other genres. She also did an album in 1997 named Jalebi Bai and there is also another album named Gur Naalo Ishq Mitha.

As a judge on TV Shows

Malaika judged different reality shows. She participated as the jury member of the two seasons of dance reality named Nach Baliye that used to air on Star Plus in the years 2005 and 2006. Then in 2008, she was a judge in Zara Nachke Dikha, which was also a dance reality show. Later in 2009, she judged a very new concept TV show for selecting the best bride among the contestants, the name of the show was Perfect Bride which aired on Star Plus. After that, she did two seasons of Jhalak Dikhla Jaa in 2010 and 2015 on Sony TV and Colors TV. In 2019, She was the Main judge of MTV India’s show on models named MTV Supermodel of the year.

There are some show franchises in which she is a judge for a long time like India’s Got Talent on Colors Tv, where she is judging since 2012 till now every year. Then there is another show in which she is the main judge and the host as well, which airs on MTV India, called India’s Next Top Model from 2017 every year. The next show is India’s Best Dancer, which started in 2020 on Sony Tv.

As Host/VJ

The next genre Malaika is mastered is VJ. She hosted many shows on TV and live. She was the first Video Jockey of MTV when it started its work in India. On MTV she hosted Club MTV for the first time, then along with Cyrus Broacha she hosted famous shows like Love Line and Style Check.

She also hosted India’s Next Top Model and MTV Supermodel of India on MTV India, being the Main Judge.

As Film Producer

She along with her ex-husband Arbaaz Khan are the producer of the famous and loved franchise ‘Dabangg’ whose hero is Salman Khan, released in 2010 and 2012. The next film produced by them is the 2015 release Dolly Ki Doli starring Rajkumar Rao, Pulkit Samrat, Varun Sharma, and Sonam Kapoor.

Brand Endorsements

Malaika is a supermodel, and brands are always in search of such models who can present their products elegantly with their charm and boldness.

In 2012 she endorsed Taiwan Excellence. Then she endorsed different brands like Gulab, Lotus Herbals, APL Footwear, Dabur Thirty Plus, Zandu Balm, Ponds, Kapiva, Streax, Oriflame, Tony & Guy, Sunsilk, etc.

Malaika makes a lot of money from endorsements of different products and brands, even though there are 3 products that she has pledged to never endorse alcohol, cigarettes, and skin-lightening products.

Net Worth and Property

She has a net worth of around $10 million. She is the highest-paid item dancer in Bollywood, where she charges around Rs.1cr per song. She has a luxury apartment worth Rs. 20 cr. In Bandra, Mumbai.

She has a very good car collection like Range Rover Vogue worth 2.11 INR, and BMW 7 Series worth 1.38 cr. INR, Toyota Innova Crysta worth 20 lakh INR, and the last one another BMW brand’s BMW X7 worth 96 lakh INR.

Role of Yoga and Fitness in her life

According to her, Yoga is a way of life and a tool to unite body, soul, and mind. Her journey in yoga started a few years back when she got an injury during a dance session, for which she was taking the help of physiotherapy, in the middle of that someone advised her to try yoga for the recovery of the injury. Then she casually began it and subsequently, it became part of her life.

She is also the founder of a Yoga studio named Diva Yoga Studio along with Sarvesh Shashi, who is also the founder of Sarva Yoga. Sarvesh is doing yoga since the age of 7 years.

Yoga has helped Malaika in her every aspect of her life from injury to helping her to stay firm in the difficult stages of her life like divorce, then relationships, and people’s weird reactions to that, she overcame all that just because of yoga.

Every day she takes out 1 hour from her schedule for Yoga, and that time is her time, during that 1 hour she doesn’t like to be disturbed, the phone is kept apart and she spends this time with herself healing her mind and her body.

Award And Felicitations

Malaika has won several awards in her career for her works as a producer, judge, dancer, etc.

Dabangg series produced by her and her ex-husband Arbaaz Khan bagged various awards like in 2010, the BIG Star Entertainment Awards, under the Most Entertaining Film category, then in 2011, the Apsara Film Producers Guild Award for Best Film, next was Award of the International Indian Film Academy again for the Best Film in the same year. This film got two most prestigious awards also- the Filmfare award for the Best Film in 2011 and the National Film Award by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India under the Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment in 2011. These were all those awards won by the film produced by her.

She got quite a few awards for featuring as a judge on TV shows. Some of them are Colors Golden Petal Awards, shared with Kiron Kher and Karan Johar in 2013, in 2014 she again won the Indian Telly Award as the Best Judge on a TV show, and that too with Kiran Kher and Karan Johar. She also got a nomination for BIG Star Entertainment Award under Most Entertaining Jury in 2016.

In 2011, she received Cosmopolitan Fun Fearless Award, under the category of Fun Fearless Power Couple with her ex-husband Arbaaz Khan (at that time they were together).

Vogue Beauty Awards felicitated her with Fitspiration of the Year in 2019. In the same year, she was given the Diva of the Year award by Filmfare Glamour and Style Award.

Malaika’s divorce decision

Malaika and Arbaaz mutually decided to give their 19 years old married relationship to an end because they had compatibility issues between them. Of course, it was not easy for them and it becomes more difficult if there is also a child. It was hard for them.

She says that even a night before her divorce day, her family member questioned her the same thing number of times “are you really going to do that, think once again” and “are you 100% sure” and advised her the same thing to do not take divorce. As we see these questions are obvious and it applies to anybody whether he or she is a star or a common person.

But Malaika stood by her decision and divorce happened. she states that for any divorce happening there is someone who has to be blamed, it could be anyone. At last, what matters is the happiness of oneself and she is happy for herself.

According to her, after the divorce, she is feeling good to be independent and enjoying having her own time and space. Even after the divorce she and Arbaaz are not like enemies, they are like those ex-couples who remained friends even after the divorce. She says that she can’t say that Arbaaz is her best friend, that will be too exaggerated but they are friends and there are no hard feelings between them. She gives credit for the friendship between her and Arbaaz to her son Arhaan, who is the bond between them. As per her, it becomes easier to stay connected with the partner even after divorce if there is a child.

Another Relationship

After the divorce, her closeness with Arjun Kapoor increased and rumours about the relationship between them came into the market. People started age shaming her because Arjun Kapoor is 12 years younger than her. At last, the couple came out and, officially announced their relationship. According to her, her relationship with Arjun did not happen instantly, she took her time. Everything happened gradually and organically. She wants to say that do not rush for a relationship, it will happen at the right time, so be calm & relaxed and have fun.

The message

she wants to give everyone is that if anyone is not happy with his/her relationship, if he/she feels that it’s not working anymore he/ she should go ahead with the decision to break up after weighing all pros and cons and with full dignity and self-confidence without worrying about anything else because ultimately being happy in the life is the most important thing for you, your family and your close ones.