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Koirala was born into the
eminent political Koirala family of Nepal. Her grandfather, and two of her
great uncles were Prime Ministers of the country. She underwent schooling at
New Delhi's Army Public School, she nurtured the ambition of becoming a
doctor, but a brush with modeling opened paved her road towards a career in
Bollywood.
Her first film was Pheri
Bhetaula (We shall meet again), a Nepali movie released in early 1989. She
debuted in the Hindi film industry with Saudagar, which was directed by
noneother than expert filmmaker Subhash Ghai. The film was a hit and she was
noted for her fresh, charming beauty. After that she went on to work with
celebrated directors like Mani Ratnam, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Sanjay Leela
Bhansali, Shekhar Kapoor, Ram Gopal Verma, Rajkumar Santoshi, Mansoor Khan
and many others.
She was the female lead in
several hit films such as 1942: A Love Story and Bombay. Her performance in
the latter won her the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Performance. The film
marked the beginning of her association with the director Mani Ratnam, and
she starred in his next film Dil Se as well in 1998. unfortunately, this
film was not successful. 1996 was the most bountiful year of her career with
her film Agnisakshi doing exceptionally good business at the box office and
her role in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Khamoshi: The Musical was widely
acclaimed. She played the role of the daughter of a mute and deaf couple in
the film. Even though the film failed to actually set the box office ablaze,
her performance was applauded. Next she starred alongside Kajol and Bobby
Deol in the super hit Gupt. She was cast opposite with Ajay Devgan in the
film Company directed by Ram Gopal Verma. This film, based on the Mumbi
underworld, was a commercial success and praised by the critics as well. She
also starred in the leading role in couple of Tamil and Telugu movies.
In 2004 she tried and burnt
her hands in production with the small-budget comic-caper Paisa Vasool in
which she starred along with Sushmita Sen. This film was directed by
Srinivas Bhashyam and was probably the first ever chick-flick in Indian
cinema. It has no male lead or a love story.
Even though most of her
films failed to generate profits, but her position as an actor remains
unharmed irrespective of box office collections. She was nominated for
Filmfare awards for her performances in 1942:A Love Story, Bombay, Akele Hum
Akele Tum, Agnisakshi, Dil se and Khamoshi. She won the award for Bombay,
Khamoshi and a surprise award for the film Company. She has won the Screen
award once for Khamoshi- The Musical.
In September 1999, Koirala
was appointed as a UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador. Ms. Koirala is actively
involved in social work both in India and Nepal. In India she labors to
promote women's rights and prevention of violence against women. She is also
associated with an organization involved in prevention of prostitution of
girls who are brought from Nepal and sold in India. |
