Mahima Dharma

Mahima Dharma is an Indian religion practiced primarily in Odisha and nearby states. It was started by people from the underprivileged castes in a caste-based Hindu society as a social reform and protest against the dominance of Brahmanism. The religious movement was based on the condemnation of all religious customs set by the rich and upper-class society generally.

Founder

The founder of Mahima Dharma was Mahima Swami, or Mahima Gosain as he was also called. The first known report of Mahima Swamy's existence was in 1867 in the newspaper Utkala Deepika in Orissa.

For many years, Mahima Gosain was in deep meditation in the caves at Himalaya. From there, Swami travelled to many regions and at last appeared in Puri (Odisha) in 1826 as Dhulia Gosain, where Swami settled on the dusty roads of Puri. People used to ask him queries on their well being and, surprisingly, it all happened to be true. It is believed once Swami was invited to Puri Mukti Mandap and there he confirmed Brahma is Nirguna and Sunya.

Mahima Chaudhry

Mahima Chaudhry (born Ritu Chaudhry) is an Indian actress and a former model who appears in Bollywood films. She made her acting debut in the 1997 film Pardes, for which she won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut.

Early and personal life

Chaudhry was born Ritu Chaudhry in Darjeeling to a Punjabi Jat father and a Nepali-origin mother from Darjeeling. She attended Dow Hill in Kurseong till class X and later moved to Loreto College in Darjeeling. Initially in the 1990s, she appeared in TV ads of which most famous was for Pepsi with Aamir Khan and Aishwarya Rai. She was a VJ on music channels where she was noticed by Subhash Ghai. Ghai gave her a break in the movie Pardes, which was released in 1997. She won the Filmfare award for best debut for this movie.

She dated Indian tennis player Leander Paes before she broke up with him due to his affair with then-married Rhea Pillai. She married architect businessman Bobby Mukherji in 2006, but is currently separated from him. She has 8-year-old daughter Ariana from her marriage. In early 2015 she was in the news for having a Swiss bank account.

Apurva Agnihotri

Apurva Agnihotri is an Indian television actor, known for his role in hit show Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin and his debut film Pardes.

Personal life

Agnihotri was born in Kolkata, India. He did his schooling from South Point School (India) in Kolkata.He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Bhavan's College, Andheri, Mumbai in 1993. He married Shilpa Sakhlani in 2004.

Career

Apurva Agnihotri debuted in the film Pardes, co-starring with Shahrukh Khan and directed by Subhash Ghai. The film was highly successful and garnered Agnihotri with the nomination for Best Supporting Actor in 1997's Zee Cine Awards. Apurva along with his wife are participants of reality show Big Boss 7 which has been aired on Colors from 15th Sept 2013. In the starting episode, Apurva has been sent to Jahannum('Hell') while his wife was assigned Jannat ('Heaven').

After several more film roles, he was offered the lead role in Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin, an Indian television serial. His work as Armaan Suri won him the Indian Telly Awards Best Actor Award for 2005.

Shah Rukh Khan

Shah Rukh Khan (born Shahrukh Khan, 2 November 1965), also known as SRK, is an Indian film actor, producer and television personality. Referred to in the media as the "Baadshah of Bollywood", "King of Bollywood" or "King Khan", he has appeared in more than 80 Bollywood films, and earned numerous accolades, including 14 Filmfare Awards. Khan has a significant following in Asia and the Indian diaspora worldwide. In terms of audience size and income, he has been described as one of the most successful film stars in the world.

Khan started his career with appearances in several television series in the late 1980s. He made his Bollywood debut in 1992 with Deewana. Early in his career, Khan was recognised for portraying villainous roles in the films Darr (1993), Baazigar (1993) and Anjaam (1994). He then rose to prominence after starring in a series of romantic films, including Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), Dil To Pagal Hai (1997), Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998) and Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (2001). He earned critical acclaim for his portrayal of an alcoholic in Devdas (2002), a NASA scientist in Swades (2004), a hockey coach in Chak De! India (2007) and a man with Asperger syndrome in My Name Is Khan (2010). Many of his films display themes of Indian national identity and connections with diaspora communities, or gender, racial, social and religious differences and grievances. For his contributions to film, the Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri, and the Government of France awarded him both the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and the Légion d'honneur.

Anuradha Paudwal

Anuradha Paudwal (मराठी: अनुराधा पौडवाल) is an Indian playback singer in Bollywood.

She is noted in Hindi cinema with a career spanning three decades.She is a five-time winner from 15 nominations of the Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer,a recipient of the National Film Award. She has sung in several languages including Hindi, Kannada, Marwari, Pahari, Marathi, Sanskrit, Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Oriya, Assamese, Punjabi, Bhojpuri, Nepali and Maithili.

Biography

Her singing career started in 1973 with the movie, Abhimaan, (starring Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan) in which she sang a Shloka (a Sanskrit verse). In the same year she also made her Marathi film debut with "Yashoda" (music by Datta Davjekar). In 1974, she brought out a record of Non-film Marathi songs or "bhav geeten" which became very popular.

In 1976, she got her break as a playback singer in Hindi films with Kalicharan (starring Shatrughan Sinha and Reena Roy). Her first solo was in the movie, Aap Beati, (starring Hema Malini and Shashi Kapoor). Laxmikant-Pyarelal were the music-composer duo for that movie. She also occasionally sang songs for composers Rajesh Roshan (Udhar Ka Sindoor), Jaidev (Dooriyan, Laila Majnu), Kalyanji Anandji (Kalaakar, Vidhaata), and Usha Khanna (Souten, Saajan Bina Suhagan).