Mallika Sherawat, was born on October 24, 1981 in Haryana, India. She worked as an air hostess prior to entering films and it was around this time that she married a pilot, Karan Singh Gill. They are now divorced. She has done her degree in philosophy from Miranda House, Delhi University. Her birth name is Reema Lamba. She adopted the screen name of Mallika, which means "empress" to avoid confusion with other actresses named Reema. She made news with her movie Khwahish, in which she kissed her co star Himanshu Malik 17 times on screen.