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 Bala Krishna ( sa, बाल कृष्ण, lit=child Krishna/divine child Krishna, translit=Bālakṛṣṇa). Present day Krishna worship is an amalgam of various elements. According to historical testimonies Krishna-Vasudeva worship alread ...

Siddhant ''Siddhant'' (also spelled Siddhanth, translation: Principle) is an Indian TV show starring Pawan Shankar in the title role, broadcast on the now defunct Star One channel from 1 December 2004 – 9 November 2005. It was produced by Anurradha Pra ...

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 i ...

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 Narayanan Vijayaraj Alagarswami (born 25 August 1952), better known by his stage name Vijayakanth, is an Indian politician and former actor who has worked predominantly in Tamil cinema. He was the Leader of the Opposition in the Tamil Nadu Le ...

Prabhu ''Prabhu'' means master or the Prince in Sanskrit and many of the Indian languages; it is a name sometimes applied to God. The term is also used by devotees of the Hindu God Lord Krishna/Vishnu as a title and form of address. It is also appended ...

, Karthik,

Jagapati Babu Veeramachaneni Jagapathi Rao Chowdary (born 12 February 1962), professionally known as Jagapathi Babu (), is an Indian actor known for his works predominantly in Telugu cinema. He has also appeared in a few Tamil, , Kannada and Malayalam films. ...

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 al ...

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 capita ...

, Jammu and Kashmir. She continued her education in the

Army Public School, Dhaula Kuan The Army Public School, Dhaula Kuan is a public school located at Delhi, India. It is operated under Indian Army supervision under the aegis of Indian Army welfare Education society (AWES). It is part of the chain of Indian Army Public Schools ...

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 w ...

. Her family then moved to

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

, 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. Dif ...

, 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 ''Narasimha Naidu'' is a 2001 Indian Telugu-language vigilante action drama film, produced by M.V.Murali Krishna under Venkata Ramana Productions banner and directed by B. Gopal. The film stars Nandamuri Balakrishna, Simran, Preeti Jhangiani, ...

'' (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 ''Love in Nepal'' is a 2004 Indian Hindi romantic thriller film directed by Rajat Mukherjee which was released on 6 March 2004. Unlike Sonu Nigam in the male lead, who is otherwise a well known Bollywood playback singer, the film has Nepali f ...

'' (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 app ...

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 Govern ...

. 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, and ''Nammannna'', starring

. 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 th ...

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 ''Kollywood ...

. 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 social, economic, and political causes and effects. When evaluating poverty in ...

work there. She is last seen in a web-series called ''

Gandii Baat ''Gandii Baat'' (literally: ''Dirty Talk'') is an Indian adult comedy web series directed by Sachin Mohite for ALTBalaji. Now this series has been removed from the ZEE5 and MX Player because of the adult content, since Indian government rele ...

'' 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 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 di ...

.'' 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 Jayshree Soni (born February 8, 1990) is an Indian actress who appears in Hindi TV serials, comedy shows and movies. She began her acting career in the Pogo (TV channel), Pogo sitcom ''Sunaina (TV series), Sunaina'' in 2008. She subsequently a ...

as ''Kasam'' and Olexandra Semen as ''Alice''. In October 2019 Flora Saini made her debut in Bengali web series through

Dupur Thakurpo ''Dupur Thakurpo'' (English: ''Paying Guests'') is a Bengali web series produced by SVF. The series revolves around a newly married woman and her brothers-in-law. Cast *Swastika Mukherjee as Uma Laha * Monalisa as Jhuma *Flora Saini Flo ...

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 fo ...

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