Malaika Arora

Malaika Arora was named after the Swahili word malaika meaning "angel". She was born in Thane, Maharashtra. Her mother, Joyce Polycarp, is a Malayali Christian, and her father, Anil Arora, was a Punjabi Hindu from the Indian border town of Fazilka who worked in the Indian Merchant Navy. Her parents divorced when she was 11 years old, and she moved to Chembur with her sister Amrita and mother, who raised them as a single mom. Her father shared a respectful relationship with the family. She completed her secondary education at Swami Vivekanand School in Chembur. She is also an alumnus of the Holy Cross High School Thane, where she studied until ninth grade. She pursued her college education at Jai Hind College, Churchgate, but did not complete it on account of professional engagements. She lived in Borla Society, Chembur opposite Basant Talkies before starting her modelling career.Arora was selected as a VJ for MTV India when its operations began. She worked as an interviewer, hosting shows such as Club MTV, and later co-hosting the shows Love Line and Style Check with Cyrus Broacha. Malaika then entered the modelling world, appearing in many advertisements, as well as album songs like Bally Sagoo's "Gur Naalo Ishq Mitha" opposite Jas Arora, and item numbers such as "Chaiyya Chaiyya" in the 1998 Bollywood film Dil Se... In 2010, she featured in the item song "Munni Badnaam Hui" in the film Dabangg, which was produced by her former husband Arbaaz Khan. On 12 March 2011, she helped set a world record with 1235 participants performing a choreographed dance to "Munni Badnaam" which she led. She was the Taiwan Excellence celebrity endorser in 2012. She endorsed Dabur's 30-Plus. She states that she never wanted to do acting. She performed live alongside Atif Aslam, Shaan and Bipasha Basu in a series of concerts at LG Arena in Birmingham and The O2 Arena in London. In 2014, she confirmed that she would make a cameo appearance in the Farah Khan-directed action comedy-drama film Happy New Year.