Twinkle Khanna

Twinkle Khanna is an Indian author, newspaper columnist, interior designer, film producer and actress who worked in Hindi films. In 2015, she released her first non-fiction book, “MrsFunnybones” which was declared a bestseller, making Khanna India’s highest-selling woman writer that year. Her second book, The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad, a collection of short stories, one of which was based on social entrepreneur Arunachalam Muruganantham was later made into National Award-winning feature film, Pad Man with the focus on dispelling taboos around menstruation. It was produced under Khanna’s production house Mrs. Funnybones Movies which was set up in 2016.

She made her screen debut opposite Bobby Deol in Rajkumar Santoshi’s romance Barsaat (1995). She was cast by Dharmendra and before the film’s release Khanna signed for two more projects. It performed well at the box office and became the sixth-highest-grossing film of the year, and she received the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut for her performance. The following year she played lead roles in Raj Kanwar’s action film Jaan and Lawrence D’Souza’s romance Dil Tera Diwana opposite Ajay Devgn and Saif Ali Khan respectively. Jaan was a box office hit.

In 1997, two films featuring her; Uff! Yeh Mohabbat and Itihaas were released. Both of these films were poor box office performers. Her only release in 1998 was Jab Pyaar Kisise Hota Hai, which featured her as Salman Khan’s love interest and was a box office success. Khanna acted opposite Akshay Kumar in two action films: International Khiladi and Zulmi (both 1999). In the former she played a news reporter who falls in love with a criminal whom she interviews. She was paired with Daggubati Venkatesh in the Telugu film Seenu (1999).