Shikha Swaroop (born 23 October 1968) is an Indian actress, and a former

Miss India International Miss India International or Miss International India is a title given to the Indian woman who represents India in the Miss International Pageant, an annual, international beauty pageant held in Japan.Glamanand Supermodel India chooses the Indian ...

winner. While still in college, she tied Miss India International in 1988 with Shabnam Patel and continued to wear this crown until 1991 when she relinquished it to Preeti Mankotia. No beauty contests were held during 1989 and 1990 due to the demise of the sponsor, Eve's Weekly. The contests resumed after a new sponsor, Femina, took over in 1991. Apart from being crowned Miss India 1988, she won a gold medal in the All India Pistol Shooting Championship in 1988 itself. In addition to modeling and being the brand ambassador for many products she was a fashion model for over 400 shows in India and abroad. She also played

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...

on a national level. At 5 feet 11 inches tall, she was the tallest actress at that time. Her career catapulted, but she suffered major setbacks when she became seriously ill.

Career

She appeared in several 1990s

Hindi Films Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

, and on television in ''

Chandrakanta Chandrakanta may refer to: * ''Chandrakanta'' (novel), a 19th-century Hindi-language novel by Indian writer Devaki Nandan Khatri, and its title character *''Chandrakanta Santati'', a series of sequel novels revolving around Chandrakanta and its ot ...

'' which was a huge hit. In the 1980s and early 1990s Shikha was considered one of the most desirable women in India. She appeared as a lead in 11 movies, some of which were multi starrers: Anil Sharma's ''

Tahalka ''Tahalka '' () is a 1992 Indian Hindi-language action adventure film directed by Anil Sharma, featuring an ensemble cast including Dharmendra, Naseeruddin Shah, Aditya Pancholi, Javed Jaffrey, Amrish Puri, Mukesh Khanna, Ekta Sohini, Pa ...

'', '' Policewala Gunda'', Pranlal Mehta's ''

Police Public ''Police Public'' is a 1990 Indian Hindi-language crime thriller film, directed by Esmayeel Shroff. The film stars Raaj Kumar, Raj Kiran, Poonam Dhillon, Naseeruddin Shah, Kabir Bedi and Prem Chopra. The film is a remake of the Malayalam film '' ...

'', Gulshan Kumar's '' Naag Mani'', '' Kayda Kanoon'', ''

Pyar Hua Chori Chori ''Pyar Hua Chori Chori'' is a 1991 Indian Hindi-language film directed by K. Bapayya, starring Mithun Chakraborty, Gautami, Shikha Swaroop, Shafi Inamdar, Shakti Kapoor and Anupam Kher. This was Gautami's debut film in Hindi. It is a remake of ...

'', ''Cheetah'', '' Thanedarni'' and ''

Awaaz De Kahan Hai '' Awaaz De Kahan Hai '' is a 1990 Bollywood film directed by Sibte Hasan Rizvi, starring Avinash Wadhavan, Shikha Swaroop, Bindu and Satyen Kappu. Cast *Avinash Wadhavan *Shikha Swaroop * Bindu *Satyen Kappu Soundtrack All songs were penned ...

''. Her other popular TV shows are Himesh Reshammiya's ''Andaaz'', ''Amarprem'', ''Anupama'', Sunil Agnihotri's ''Yug'' and Siddhant Vision's ''Kahan Se Kahan tak''. She made a comeback with TV serial '' Kahani Chandrakanta Ki''. She also played the role of

Kaikeyi Kaikeyi (Sanskrit: कैकेयी, IAST: Kaikeyī) is the second consort of King Dasharatha, and a queen of Ayodhya in the Hindu epic Ramayana. Out of Dasharatha's three wives, Kaikeyi exerts the most influence. Formerly the princess of ...

in the

Zee TV Zee TV (stylised as ZEE TV) is a Hindi general entertainment pay television Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to Subscription bus ...

show ''

Ramayan The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th to 4th centuries BCE, and later stages ...

''.

Personal life

Shikha was married to Army pilot Rajiv Lal, but later they separated.

References

External links

Living people Femina Miss India winners Indian television actresses Female models from Delhi St. Stephen's College, Delhi alumni Delhi University alumni 1970 births {{India-tv-actor-stub