Shibani Dandekar Akhtar (born 27 August 1980) is an Indian-born Australian singer, actress, host and model. She began her career working as a television host on American television. Following her return to India, she began hosting several shows and events on Hindi television, besides working as a model and singer. She was one of the co-hosts of the ''

2019 ICC Cricket World Cup The 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup was the 12th Cricket World Cup, a quadrennial One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament contested by men's national teams and organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was hosted between 30 May ...

''. She was also a contestant on '' Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 5'' (2012) and '' Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi 8'' (2017).

Early and personal life

Farhan Akhtar and Shibani Dandekar grace the special screening of The Sky Is Pink

Dandekar was born in

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, ( the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million As of 2021, Pune Metropolitan Region is the largest i ...

as the eldest daughter into a

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

family. Her father Shashidhar Dandekar is a theatre actor in Australia and her mother Sulabha Dandekar works in Qantas Airways, Australia. She has two sisters,

Anusha Dandekar Anusha Dandekar (born 9 January 1982) is an Indian-Australian MTV VJ, actress and singer, who is best known as a VJ and a host who has hosted several shows. Early life Dandekar was born in Sudan on 9 January 1982 into a Marathi family of Shas ...

, an actress-singer working 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 Apeksha Dandekar. Dandekar along with her sisters formed a music band named D-Major. Dandekar grew up in Australia and Africa for the majority of her childhood. Dandekar started dating Bollywood filmmaker and actor

Farhan Akhtar Farhan Akhtar (born 9 January 1974) is an Indian actor, director, screenwriter, playback singer, producer, and television host who works in Hindi films. Born in Mumbai to screenwriters Javed Akhtar and Honey Irani, he grew up under the influen ...

in 2018, just after his divorce from Adhuna Bhabani in 2017. On 19 February 2022, they got married in a non-religious ceremony at Farhan's father's farmhouse in

Khandala Khandala is a hill station in the Western Ghats in the state of Maharashtra, India, about from Lonavala, 12 kilometres from Khopoli and from Karjat. Khandala is located at the top end of the Bhor Ghat, a major ''ghat'' (meaning valley in ...

Career

In 2001, she moved to New York City and began working in American television. She hosted three nationally syndicated television shows, ''Namaste America'', ''V Desi'' and the ''Asian Variety Show''. In this role, she introduced Bollywood's biggest stars to American audiences and also hosted ''An Evening With Shah Rukh Khan in Atlantic City''. She has been a contestant on ''

Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa ''Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa'' is an Indian Hindi-language reality television show and the Indian version of BBC's ''Strictly Come Dancing'' and ''Dancing with the Stars''. The show pairs celebrities with professional dancers. Each couple performs pred ...

'', the India-based ''

Dancing With the Stars ''Dancing with the Stars'' is the name of various international television series based on the format of the British TV series ''Strictly Come Dancing'', which is distributed by BBC Studios, the commercial arm of the BBC. Currently the forma ...

'' on the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

network and hosted in India on Colors TV. She returned to India and continued her work as a television host, while venturing into modelling as well. Shibani Dandekar and others walks the ramp at the Lotus Make up India Fashion Week 2019

Shibani Dandekar and others walks the ramp at the Lotus Make up India Fashion Week 2019

Apart from music and modeling, Dandekar's love for anchoring shows saw her as host for major events such as the Maxim Hot 100, Nike, Rolls-Royce, Puma, Mercedes, Toyota, Horlicks, HSBC, Spice Mobile, JBL, MTV Coke Studio, Nivea and the Sony Launch of the tribute to Michael Jackson's "This is It". Dandekar has anchored popular shows including the lifestyle shows ''After Hours'' on

Zee Cafe Zee is the phonetic pronunciation of the letter Z in American English ("zed" in Commonwealth English). Zee may also refer to: People *Zee (徐), a Wu Chinese surname, an equivalent of Xu *Anthony Zee (b. 1945), Chinese-American physicist *Chie ...

, ''Men 2.0'' on

AXN AXN is a pay television channel owned by Sony Pictures Television, which was first launched in September 1997 in Asia. Local versions have since been launched in several parts of the world, including Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Funded t ...

ZoOm Zoom may refer to: Technology Computing * Zoom (software), videoconferencing application * Page zooming, the ability to magnify or shrink a portion of a page on a computer display * Zooming user interface, a graphical interface allowing for image ...

's '' Let's Design'', ''India's Sexiest Bachelor'' on Big CBS Prime, as well as its extension ''India's Glam Diva'' on Big CBS Love. Dandekar also anchored the Indian produced ''Grammy Nominees Special'' on

VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism of Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network based in New York City and owned by Paramount Global. It was created by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, at the time a division of Warner Communic ...

as a lead-up to the

53rd Grammy Awards The 53rd Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 13, 2011, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. They were broadcast on CBS with a rating of 26.6 million viewers. Barbra Streisand was honored as the MusiCares Person of the Year two nights prio ...

. Since 2011, she has been co-hosting the show ''Extraa Innings – T20'' on Sony Max Television during the

Indian Premier League The Indian Premier League (IPL), also known as Tata Group, TATA IPL for sponsorship reasons, is a men's T20 cricket, T20 Professional sports league organization, franchise cricket Sports league, league of India. It is annually contested by ...

matches; she won a nomination at the 11th

Indian Television Academy Awards The Indian Television Academy Awards, also known as the ''ITA Awards'', is an annual award ceremony organised by the Indian Television Academy to honour excellence in Hindi-language television. Ceremonies Categories Popular Awards * ITA A ...

in the category Best Anchor Game/Quiz Show. She is hosting the Mission cover shot for National Geography channel. She did a dance number ''Hi Poli Saajuk '' for 2014's Marathi movie '' Timepass'', followed by ''36 Nakhrewali'' in '' Sangharsh''. She played the role 'Zoya' in the movie ''

Roy Roy is a masculine given name and a family surname with varied origin. In Anglo-Norman England, the name derived from the Norman ''roy'', meaning "king", while its Old French cognate, ''rey'' or ''roy'' (modern ''roi''), likewise gave rise to ...

'' which was released on 13 February 2015. In 2017, Shibani participated in Khatron Ke Khiladi 8 and eliminated in the first week at 12th place. In 2019, she hosted the opening ceremony of

ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 The 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup was the 12th Cricket World Cup, a quadrennial One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament contested by men's national teams and organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was hosted between 30 May ...

along with

Andrew Flintoff Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff (born 6 December 1977) is an English television and radio presenter and former international cricketer. Flintoff played all forms of the game and was one of the sport's leading all-rounders, a fast bowler, middle-orde ...

and

Paddy McGuinness Patrick Joseph McGuinness (born 14 August 1973) is an English actor, comedian and television presenter. He rose to fame with the help of Peter Kay, who invited him to appear in his programmes ''That Peter Kay Thing'', ''Phoenix Nights'' and '' M ...

in which her husband Farhan Akhtar also appeared as a guest representing India.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dandekar, Shibani Living people Actresses from Pune Indian people Indian women Female models from Maharashtra Marathi people Indian film actresses Indian women singers Indian female models Indian emigrants to Australia Actresses from Sydney Australian film actresses Australian women singers Australian female models Australian women television presenters Australian VJs (media personalities) Australian people of Marathi descent Australian people of Indian descent Australian actresses of Indian descent Australian expatriate actresses in India Actresses in Marathi cinema Actresses in Hindi cinema Actresses in Telugu cinema Actresses in Malayalam cinema Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi participants 21st-century Australian actresses 21st-century Australian singers 21st-century Australian women singers 1980 births