Mallika exposed: These are the true lies

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NISHA

@nishaek

Inactive

Posted: 17 years ago

When Reema Lamba decided she wanted to make it in Bollywood, she knew she would need a new look, a new name and a new story. Anna MM Vetticad unwraps the packaging.

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Mukesh Kumar Lamba is a puzzled man. ''I don't know why my daughter keeps saying she's from a middle class, small-town family,'' he says. ''Ours is a top Jat family. When we asked her, she said, 'Papa, filmon mein yeh sab kehna padta hai achchi publicity ke liye'.'' Lamba is the father of actress Mallika Sherawat—formerly Reema Lamba—heroine of 2004's first Hindi film hit Murder, an ex-model with so much body-baring derring-do and so much studied shock value in her words that CNN has hailed her as a youth icon and Newsweek featured her in an article on The New Bollywood within less than a year of her debut as a leading lady.

Lamba senior seems mildly amused when we mention that his daughter has also said that he is so furious with her career choice that he no longer talks to her. ''I stayed with her for two nights in Mumbai in December, and except for these past six months when she's been very busy, she has been visiting us in Delhi every 2-3 months,'' he says. ''I guess I have to understand when she says she needs to say these things to get media attention.'' be bothered by reality though. Mallika Sherawat was born Reema Lamba about 28 years ago. Her father, a senior Haryana government official, was posted at the time in the town of Narwana in Jind district of Haryana. The Lambas are distantly related to the former BJP MLA from Hansi, PK Chowdhry, grandson of the late 19th century Jat millionaire and philanthropist Chowdhry Chhajjuram.