Flora Saini, also known by her screen name Asha Saini, is an Indian actress and model. She predominantly works in
Bollywood
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 also appeared in a number of Kannada, Tamil and Telugu
films. Since her debut in ''Prema Kosam'' (1999), she has acted in over 50 films and co-starred with noted actors like
Rajinikanth
Shivaji Rao Gaikwad (born 12 December 1950), known professionally as Rajinikanth, is an Indian actor, producer and screenwriter. In a career spanning over five decades, he has done 160 films that includes films in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Kannad ...
,
Balakrishna,
Siddhant,
Sudeep
Sudeep Sanjeev (born 2 September 1971), also known as Sudeepa, is an Indian actor, director, producer, screenwriter, television presenter and singer, who primarily works in Kannada films. He has also worked in Hindi, Telugu and Tamil films. He ...
,
Shivarajkumar
Nagaraju Shiva Puttaswamy (born 12 July 1962) known by his screen name Shiva Rajkumar, is an Indian actor, producer and television presenter, predominantly works in Kannada cinema. ,
Vijaykanth,
Prabhu,
Karthik,
Jagapati Babu and
Rajasekhar.
Early life
Born in
Chandigarh
Chandigarh () is a planned city in India. Chandigarh is bordered by the state of Punjab to the west and the south, and by the state of Haryana to the east. It constitutes the bulk of the Chandigarh Capital Region or Greater Chandigarh, which ...
to an army officer, Flora began her schooling in
Udhampur
Udhampur (ˌʊd̪ʱəmpur) is a city and a municipal council in Udhampur district in the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. It is the headquarters of Udhampur District. Named after Raja Udham Singh, it serves as the district capit ...
,
Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to:
* Kashmir, the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent
* Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory
* Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered ...
. She continued her education in the
Army Public School, Dhaula Kuan,
Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders wi ...
. Her family then moved to
Kolkata
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...
, where she started pursuing a modeling career. She participated in the Miss Kolkata beauty pageant.
Career
Flora made her acting debut in the 1999 Telugu film ''Prema Kosam''.
The producer of the film rechristened her as Asha Saini; some years later she would adopt a new screen name, Mayuri, as per the advice of an
astrologer
Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Di ...
, before eventually reverting to her original name.
The actress subsequently played supporting roles in more than a dozen Telugu-language films in the next three years. She appeared in the film ''
Narasimha Naidu'' (2002), which went on to become highly successful. It was for some time the most notable film in her filmography, and it led to her being referred to as "Lux Papa" thereafter.
In 2002, Flora made her first Hindi-language film, starring in the T. P. Aggarwal-produced ''Bharat Bhagya Vidhata''. Her second Hindi film, ''
Love in Nepal'' (2004), also produced by Agarwal, saw her paired with popular
playback singer
A playback singer, also known as a ghost singer, is a singer whose singing is pre-recorded for use in films. Playback singers record songs for soundtracks, and actors or actresses lip-sync the songs for cameras; the actual singer does not ap ...
Sonu Nigam
Sonu Nigam (born 30 July 1973) is an Indian singer, music director and actor. He has been described in the media as one of the most popular and successful playback singers of Hindi Cinema and Kannada Cinema. He has been honoured by the Gover ...
.
Flora has appeared in several
Kannada
Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...
-language films, too, including ''Giri'', starring
Srinagara Kitty
Krishna (born 8 July 1977) known by his stage name Srinagara Kitty, is an Indian actor who primarily works in Kannada television series and films. He started off as a child artist working in a host of television serialized dramas before making ...
, and ''Nammannna'', starring
Sudeep
Sudeep Sanjeev (born 2 September 1971), also known as Sudeepa, is an Indian actor, director, producer, screenwriter, television presenter and singer, who primarily works in Kannada films. He has also worked in Hindi, Telugu and Tamil films. He ...
.
In March 2008, she was arrested in
Chennai
Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of ...
for supposedly having forged visa documents,
and was subsequently banned from the
Tamil film industry
Tamil cinema, also known as Kollywood is a part of Indian Cinema; primarily engaged in production of motion pictures in the Tamil language. Based out of the Kodambakkam neighbourhood in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, it is popularly called ''Kolly ...
. She claimed innocence, and the ban was lifted a couple of weeks later.
Three films in which Flora Saini stars – the Telugu-language ''Broker'', and two Kannada-language films, ''Vismaya Pramaya'' and ''Vah Re Vah'' – were released on 31 December 2010, a rare occurrence that secured her an entry in the Limca Book of Records for the most film releases on one day. In 2010, Flora Saini was honoured with the Uttarakhand Ratna Award. She has also received The Great Daughter of Soil Award in
Mauritius
Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...
for her anti-
poverty
Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little income. Poverty can have diverse < ...
work there.
She is last seen in a web-series called ''
Gandii Baat'' season 2 with Anveshi Jain, where she played a lead role. Recently, Saini was seen in many web series and notably worked in ''
Mayanagari-City of Dreams
'' City of Dreams '' is an Indian series by Nagesh Kukunoor which is available on Hotstar on its new label Hotstar Specials from 3 May 2019. It is directed by Nagesh Kukunoor starring Atul Kulkarni, Priya Bapat, Sachin Pilgaonkar, Eijaz ...
of
Hotstar
Disney+ Hotstar (also known as Hotstar) is an Indian brand of subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Novi Digital Entertainment of Disney Star and operated by Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution, both ...
.''
In 2015, Flora Saini played the role of ''Muskan'' in
MSG: The Messenger starring
Gurmeet Ram Rahim. She played the role of a daughter with
Jayshree Soni as ''Kasam'' and Olexandra Semen as ''Alice''.
In October 2019 Flora Saini made her debut in Bengali web series through
Dupur Thakurpo hoichoi
Hoichoi is an Indian subscription video on-demand and over-the-top streaming service, owned and maintained by SVF Entertainment Pvt Ltd with headquarters in Kolkata, India. It was launched on 20 September 2017. Hoichoi is currently available ...
web series. It was the 3rd season of the series and she played the iconinc role of Phulwa boudi.
She also was chosen as a face of short video app "Firework", while being managed by "Celeb Connex".
Filmography
Films
Television
Web series
''All web series are in Hindi language, otherwise noted the language''.
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saini, Flora
Actresses in Tamil cinema
Actresses in Telugu cinema
Female models from Chandigarh
Actresses from Chandigarh
Living people
Actresses in Hindi cinema
Actresses in Kannada cinema
Indian film actresses
20th-century Indian actresses
21st-century Indian actresses
Actresses in Punjabi cinema
1978 births