Kirron Kher

Biography:  Kirron Kher is an amazing Indian theatre, film and television actress and a TV talk show host.  She was born in Mumbai to Jatt Sikh parents, and brought up in Chandigarh, Punjab, where she did her schooling and later college from Panjab University, Chandigarh. At school, she was an avid badminton player along with her sister, Arjuna awardee Kanwal Thakar Singh. Their mother Diljit Singh was also active in sports and dramatics in her college days during pre-partition Punjab. Career Kirron Kher made her film debut in 1983 with the Punjabi feature film Aasra Pyar Da and received rave reviews for her performance. She soon took a hiatus from films, following her divorce, in order to raise her son Sikander Kher. She worked for her second husband Anupam Kher as a costume designer and suggested the title for the movie Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge which was released in 1995. She appeared in only one film in between, Pestonjee in 1988, wherein she acted along with her husband Anupam Kher. Her return to acting came about with theatre, with the play Saalgirah by playwright Feroz Khan. Soon she hosted three television shows, starting with Purush Kshetra on Zee TV which got her much acclaim for openly discussing sexuality at a forum for the first time, while highlighting women's issues at the same time. Next, she hosted Kiron Kher Today and Jagte Raho with Kiron Kher, before acting in Bollywood films. Her comeback film was Karan Arjun (1995), followed by the much-acclaimed film by Shyam Benegal, Sardari Begum (1996), which won her the Special Jury Award at the 1997 National Film Awards. Personal Life Her first marriage was with actor and businessman, Gautam Berry, with whom she has a son, actor Sikander Kher, before they divorced in 1985. She then married actor Anupam Kher, who she first met at the Department of Indian Theatre in Chandigarh in 1974, which had Balwant Gargi as its head. However, after this Anupam Kher went to Delhi and joined National School of Drama (NSD), while Kirron went to Bombay and got married to her first husband. Subsequently, they met while working together in a play called Chanadpuri Ki Champabai, and married in 1985; now they run a production house together. In 2003, she changed her name from "Kiron" to "Kirron" due to beliefs in numerology.