Bipasha Basu (born 7 January 1979) is an Indian actor and former model. She won an international modelling contest as a teenager, made an award-winning film debut in Ajnabee in 2001 and became a star with the horror film Raaz the next year. Through the 2000s she was among the most successful actresses in Hindi cinema, particularly associated with thrillers and horror, and she was one of the first Bollywood stars to build a public image around fitness.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Bipasha Basu Singh Grover |
| Born | 7 January 1979, New Delhi, India |
| Age | 47 |
| Occupation | Actor, model |
| Years active | 1996–present |
| Known for | Ajnabee, Raaz, Jism, No Entry, Omkara, Race |
| Education | Bhavan’s Gangabux Kanoria Vidyamandir, Kolkata |
| Spouse | Karan Singh Grover (m. 2016) |
| Children | 1 daughter (Devi) |
Early Life
Basu was born in New Delhi into a Bengali family, the second of three daughters of Hirak Basu, a civil engineer, and Mamta. The family moved to Kolkata when she was about eight. She was head girl at her school and planned to study medicine before switching to commerce and thinking of becoming a chartered accountant.
Career
In 1996 the model Mehr Jesia saw her at a hotel in Kolkata and suggested she try modelling. That year, at seventeen, she won the Godrej Cinthol Supermodel Contest and went on to represent India at the Ford Models Supermodel of the World competition in Miami. She worked in New York for a period and appeared on many magazine covers.
After turning down several offers she made her debut in Abbas–Mustan’s Ajnabee (2001) in a negative role, unusual for a newcomer, and won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut. Vikram Bhatt’s Raaz (2002), a ghost story made on a modest budget, was one of the biggest hits of the year and earned her a Filmfare nomination for Best Actress. In Jism (2003) she played a woman who seduces a lawyer into murdering her husband, a role that challenged the conventions for Hindi film heroines.
Her successes over the following years included the comedy No Entry (2005), the business drama Corporate (2006), in which she played an executive made a scapegoat by her company, and Dhoom 2. In Vishal Bhardwaj’s Omkara, his version of Othello, she appeared as the dancer Billo and performed the hit song “Beedi”. Race (2008), Bachna Ae Haseeno and Raaz 3 (2012) followed. She returned repeatedly to horror with Aatma, Creature 3D and Alone (2015), and hosted the television series Darr Sabko Lagta Hai. She has also acted in Bengali, Telugu and Tamil films, and in the web series Dangerous (2020).
She released a series of fitness DVDs under the title Love Yourself from 2010 and has regularly been named among the country’s fittest celebrities.
Personal Life
She was in a long relationship with the actor John Abraham, her co-star in Jism, until 2011. She met the actor Karan Singh Grover while filming Alone and married him on 30 April 2016. Their daughter, Devi, was born in November 2022. Basu later disclosed that the child had been born with two holes in her heart and had undergone surgery at three months old, and she has since spoken about the experience to encourage other parents.
Selected Filmography
Frequently Asked Questions
When and where was Bipasha Basu born?
Bipasha Basu was born on 7 January 1979 in New Delhi, India and is 47 years old.
What is Bipasha Basu known for?
Known for: Ajnabee, Raaz, Jism, No Entry, Omkara, Race.
Featured image: Bipasha Basu on the green carpet at the IIFA Awards, Tampa, Florida, April 2014. Photo by Laura Lee Dooley, licensed under CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
