Mandana Karimi (born Manizeh Karimi; 19 May 1988) is an Iranian actress and model based in India. After working on several successful modelling projects around the world, she appeared as a lead in the

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". The in ...

film, '' Bhaag Johnny''. She participated in the popular reality TV show, '' Bigg Boss 9'' and became the 2nd runner up in 2015.

Early life

Karimi was born on 19 May 1988 in

Tehran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

, into a

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

family. Her father has Indian ancestry and her mother is an Indian. She was raised in Tehran. About her Indian connection she commented, "I had come to India many times, visiting my family or for holidays."

Career

Karimi started her career as an

air hostess A flight attendant is a member of the aircrew whose primary responsibility is ensure the safety of passengers in the cabin of an aircraft across all stages of flight. Their secondary duty is to see to the comfort of passengers. Flight attenda ...

, and later quit that job to pursue a career in modelling. In 2010, after working on various international modelling projects, she came to

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

for three months on a modelling contract. About her experience in India she said, "I had a different experience, staying without my family. I absolutely loved it! Work was great, but at that time, I had other contracts around the world. Then, in 2013, I decided to move to Mumbai and try acting." Karimi has done TV commercials with

Shahrukh Khan Shah Rukh Khan (; born 2 November 1965), also known by the initialism SRK, is an Indian actor and film producer who works in Hindi cinema. Referred to in the media as the " Baadshah of Bollywood" and "King Khan", he has appeared in more th ...

Saif Ali Khan Saif Ali Khan (; born Sajid Ali Khan Pataudi; 16 August 1970) is an Indian actor and film producer who primarily works in Hindi cinema, Hindi films. The titular head of the Pataudi family since 2011, he is the son of actress Sharmila Tagore a ...

Kareena Kapoor Kareena Kapoor Khan (; ; born 21 September 1980) is an Indian actress. A prolific leading lady of Hindi cinema since 2000, she is noted for her roles in a range of film genres—from romantic comedies to crime dramas. Kapoor is the recipient ...

Shahid Kapoor Shahid Kapoor (; born 25 February 1981) is an Indian actor who appears in Hindi films. Initially recognised for portraying romantic roles, he has since taken on parts in action films and thrillers, and is the recipient of List of awards and n ...

and

Arjun Kapoor Arjun Kapoor (born 26 June 1985) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi films. Born to the Surinder Kapoor family, he is the son of film producers Boney Kapoor and Mona Shourie. Kapoor made his acting debut in 2012 with the drama '' Ishaqzaade ...

. In February 2015, she made a guest appearance in the film '' Roy''. Later that year, in September, her movie '' Bhaag Johnny'' was released. She also appeared in the October 2015 film, ''

Main Aur Charles ''Main aur Charles'' () is a 2015 Hindi crime film written and directed by Prawaal Raman and produced by Cynozure Networkz. The film is a fictitious thriller inspired by true events; it is told from the perspective of the Indian cop, Amod Kanth ...

'', where she played the role of Charles Sobraj's assistant. Karimi's next film, ''

Kyaa Kool Hain Hum 3 ''Kyaa Kool Hain Hum 3'' () is a 2016 Indian Hindi-language sex comedy film starring Tusshar Kapoor, Aftab Shivdasani and Mandana Karimi in lead roles along with Gizele Thakral, Claudia Ciesla, Krishna Abhishek, Shakti Kapoor, Darshan Jari ...

'', a

sex comedy Sexual comedy (also known as, sex comedy and erotic comedy) is a genre in which comedy is motivated by sexual situations and love affairs. Although "sexual comedy" is primarily a description of dramatic forms such as theatre and film, literary wor ...

, was released on 22 January 2016. Karimi was a contestant in the reality TV show, '' Bigg Boss 9'', where a group of celebrities from various walks of life live together in a large house. One of the contestants is eliminated every week, based on public votes. The show went on air in October 2015 on Colors. She was one of the three finalists of the season and ended up as a runner-up. In 2018, she joined

Star Plus StarPlus is an Indian Hindi-language general entertainment pay television channel owned by JioStar, a joint venture between Viacom18 and Disney India. Its programming consists of family dramas, romantic comedies, youth-oriented reali ...

's ''

Ishqbaaaz ''Ishqbaaaz'' () (international title: ''Game of Love'') is an Indian romantic drama television series that aired from 27 June 2016 to 15 March 2019 on Star Plus. It initially starred Nakuul Mehta, Surbhi Chandna, Kunal Jaisingh, Shrenu Par ...

'' as Nancy. In October 2018, Karimi accused Umesh Ghadge the director of ''

'' of sexual harassment. She had also accused director

Sajid Khan Sajid Khan (28 December 1951 – 22 December 2023) was an Indian actor and singer. Born into poverty in the Bombay slums, he became the adopted son of Bollywood filmmaker Mehboob Khan, founder of Mehboob Studios. He worked in a handful of Indi ...

of sexual harassment at the time and expressed her intention to quit Bollywood after Khan appeared as contestant on '' Bigg Boss 16'' in 2022. Mandana participated in an Indian TV reality show called '' Lock-Upp''.

Personal life

In an interview, Karimi said, "The first film that I watched was ''

Sholay ''Sholay'' (, ) is a 1975 Indian epic action-adventure film directed by Ramesh Sippy, produced by his father G. P. Sippy, and written by Salim–Javed. The film is about two criminals, Veeru (Dharmendra) and Jai (Amitabh Bachchan), hired ...

'' when I was 8 or 9 years old. My father was one of the few people in Iran who possessed a tape of the film, though the

Government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

didn't allow to keep video cassettes." She further commented, "Mainly, I've grown up watching Iranian films, especially by directors like

Majid Majidi Majid Majidi () is an Iranian filmmaker and producer. In his films, Majidi has touched on many themes and genres and has won numerous international awards. Biography Born in a Persian middle-class family, he grew up in Tehran and at the age of 1 ...

and my favourite actress is

Golshifteh Farahani Rahavard Farahani (; born 10 July 1983), known professionally as Golshifteh Farahani (), is an Iranian and French actress. She is known for her performances in '' M for Mother'' (2006), '' Body of Lies'' (2008), ''About Elly'' (2009), ''The Pat ...

." Karimi speaks

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

, English, and

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

. In July 2016, Karimi got engaged to her boyfriend, Gaurav Gupta, an Indian businessman from Mumbai. The couple married in court in early March the following year, which was followed by a lavish

Hindu wedding A Hindu wedding, also known as (, ) in Hindi, () in Marathi, () in Bhojpuri, () in Bengali, () or () in Odia, () in Tamil, () in Telugu, () in Kannada, and ''kalyanam'' (, ; ) in Malayalam and other languages, is the traditiona ...

in March 2017. She had shortly before converted from

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for a range of Indian religions, Indian List of religions and spiritual traditions#Indian religions, religious and spiritual traditions (Sampradaya, ''sampradaya''s) that are unified ...

. In July 2017, Karimi filed a domestic violence case against her husband and his family, which she later withdrew in hopes of saving her marriage. They got divorced in 2021.

Filmography

Films

Television

Web series

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Karimi, Mandana Living people 1988 births Actresses from Tehran Iranian film actresses Actresses in Hindi cinema Iranian diaspora film people Iranian female models Iranian television actresses Iranian expatriates in India Expatriate actresses in India Iranian people of Indian descent Iranian emigrants to India Violence against women in India Iranian former Shia Muslims Converts to Hinduism from Shia Islam