ll Happy Birthday ''Comedian'' Govinda ll

Govinda (born Govinda Arjun Ahuja, 21 December 1963) is an Indian actor and a former politician. Govinda has received five Filmfare Awardnominations and four Zee Cine Award, winning two Filmfare Awards including a Special Jury Award.

Making his debut in Ilzaam in 1986, he has appeared in over 120 Hindi films of the Bollywood industry. In June 1999, Govinda was voted as the tenth greatest star of stage or screen of the last thousand years by BBC News Online users.^[1]

His earlier films in the 1980s were in a variety of genres such as family drama, action and romantic. In the 1990s he gained recognition as a comedy actor playing a mischievous young NCC cadet in the romantic movie Shola Aur Shabnam (1992) opposite the late Divya Bharti. He played leading roles in several commercially successful comedy films in the 1990s such as Aankhen(1993), Raja Babu(1994), Coolie No. 1 (1995), Hero No. 1 (1997) and Haseena Maan Jayegi (1999). For Coolie No. 1(1995), he earned a nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Actor. For Haseena Maan Jayegi he earned the Filmfare Best Comedian Award. He has successfully played dual roles in movies like Jaan Se Pyaara (1992), Aankhen (1993), Hathkadi(1995) and Bade Miyan Chote Miyan (1998).^[2]

After a period of box office flops in the 2000s, his recent commercial successes have been Bhagam Bhag (2006) and Partner (2007) and Life Partner(2010). In 2013, he released his music album Gori Tere Naina. On 8 December 2013, he went to the popular Colors T.V. show Comedy Nights with Kapil for his album's promotion.

In addition to film acting, he is a member of the Indian National Congress Party. He was elected as the seventh Member of Parliament for the Mumbai North Constituency of Maharashtra, India in the 14th Lok Sabha elections in 2004,^[3] after defeating Ram Naik of the Bharatiya Janata Party. In the 2009 General Elections, he opted out of politics to concentrate more on films. However he continues to have political favor from Congress Party. His constituency was succeeded by Sanjay Nirupam (also from Congress).