Maryam Zakaria is an Iranian-born Swedish actress and model who works in

Indian films The Cinema of India consists of motion pictures produced in India, which had a large effect on world cinema since the late 20th century. Major centers of film production across the country include Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Ko ...

. She has appeared in

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

, Telugu, and

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

language films. She is best known for her work in films such as '' Madatha Kaja'', ''Agent Vinod'' and ''

Grand Masti ''Grand Masti'' (), also referred to as ''Masti 2'', is a 2013 Indian Hindi-language adult comedy film directed by Indra Kumar and produced by Ashok Thakeria. The film is a sequel to the 2004 film '' Masti'', and the second installment of '' M ...

''.

Career

In Sweden, Zakaria worked as model, dance teacher, choreographer, and established a Bollywood dance school, the Indisk Dans Studio, which was the first dance school in Sweden to teach the "jhatkas and matkas of Bollywood cinema". She moved to

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, in 2009 to work 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 began working as a model, appearing in various television adverts, the most notable being the adverts of Set Wet, Layz, and Coke. She also appeared in a Coca-Cola advertisement with

Imran Khan Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi ( ur}; born 5 October 1952) is a Pakistani politician and former Cricket captain who served as the 22nd Prime Minister of Pakistan from August 2018 to until April 2022, when he was ousted through a no-confidenc ...

. Tamil film director Sundar C. signed her to perform an

item number In Indian cinema, an item number or item song is a musical number inserted into a film that may or may not have any relevance to the plot. The term is commonly used within Indian films (Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, Punjabi, and ...

in his film '' Nagaram'' (2010), after watching a dance video of hers on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

. Her performance in the hit number "Diyalo Diyala" from '' 100% Love'' was her big breakthrough. She went on to play one of the female lead characters in another Telugu film, '' Madatha Kaja'' (2011), alongside Allari Naresh, and signed to do another Telugu movie as leading actress in ''Arjuna''. In 2012, she appeared in the item number "Dilli Ki Billi" in Muazzam Beg's film ''

Sadda Adda ''Sadda Adda'' () is a 2012 Indian comedy film directed by Muazzam Beg. The film was Muazzam Beg's directorial debut. ''Sadda Adda'' was produced by Rajeev Agarwal, Ramesh Agarwal and Tarun Agarwal, under the banner of Rajtaru Studios Limited. ...

''. In the Saif Ali Khan film '' Agent Vinod'', she acted as Farah and performed a

mujra Mujra is a dance performance by women in a format that emerged during Mughal rule in India, where the elite class and local rulers like the nawabs of the Indian society (often connected to the Mughal emperor's court) used to frequent courtesan ...

in the song "Dil Mera Muft Ka" alongside

Kareena Kapoor Kareena Kapoor Khan (; '' née'' Kapoor; born 21 September 1980) is an Indian actress who appears in Hindi films. She is the daughter of actors Randhir Kapoor and Babita, and the younger sister of actress Karisma Kapoor. Noted for playing a va ...

, which gave her a fame in Bollywood. In 2012, she signed for Indra Kumar's movie ''

'', as leading actress opposite Aftab Shivdasani, which released on 13 September 2013. ''Grand Masti'' is the highest grossing Bollywood film with an A (Adults Only) certificate in India to be a big hit, subsequently entering Bollywood's 100-crore club in India. The film was declared a Super Hit in India by Box Office India.

Personal life

Maryam Zakaria married choreographer Arvind Thakur in 2012. The couple also had a son, Aryan Thakur, in 2013.

Filmography

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zakaria, Maryam Living people 1984 births Actresses from Tehran Iranian film actresses Iranian female models Iranian women dancers Iranian emigrants to Sweden Swedish people of Iranian descent Swedish film actresses Swedish female models Iranian expatriates in India Swedish expatriates in India Actresses in Hindi cinema Actresses in Tamil cinema Actresses in Telugu cinema European actresses in India European actresses in Bollywood Actresses of European descent in Indian films Actresses of European descent in Bollywood films Iranian former Muslims Converts to Hinduism from Islam Iranian Hindus Swedish Hindus