Celina Jaitly
Celina Jaitly[1] (born 24 November 1981)[2][3] is an Indian film actress who mainly appears in Bollywood films. A former beauty queen and model, she won the Miss India in 2001 and was the 4th runner-up at Miss Universe 2001.[4] She made her acting debut with the 2003 thriller Janasheen.
Celina Jaitly was born in Kabul, DR Afghanistan[5][6] to a Punjabi father, Colonel V. K. Jaitly and an Afghan Hindu mother, Meeta, who was a nurse in the Indian Army.[7][8][9][10] Celina has a brother who is also in the army.[11]
She wanted to grow up and join the army just like her father, either as a pilot or a doctor.[12] Most of her childhood was spent in different locations due to her father being transferred in cities and towns all over India – as a result she ended up studying in over a dozen different schools.[12] While her family was in Lucknow, she attended City Montessori School, Station Road, Lucknow. She also studied in Berhampur, Odisha. She has spent a major portion of her time in Kolkata, West Bengal where father was posted during her college days. The family is now settled in Mhow.[13] She graduated with a degree in commerce from Indira Gandhi National Open University.[14] After graduation, Celina worked in a cell phone company briefly.
Celina started her career with a marketing job in a mobile phone company in Kolkata before she decided to participate in a local beauty contest.[15][16] She won the title at Femina Miss India 2001.[4] She also won the Miss Margo Beautiful Skin, Indiatimes Surfer’s Choice, and MTV’s Most Wanted award.[citation needed] She was subsequently sent to the Miss Universe 2001 contest representing India where she finished 4th runner-up.[14]
In 2001, she featured in Jazzy B’s music video of “Oh Kehri”, which was immensely popular.[17] She also featured in music videos for Bombay Vikings.[18]
In 2003, she made her film debut in Feroz Khan’s Janasheen. The movie was a moderate box office success in India.[19] For her second release, she had a starring role opposite Sunny Deol in the romantic action Khel, but the feature was poorly received and earned little at the box office.[20]
In 2004, Celina turned down the lead role in Julie. In an interview with Stardust, Celina commented: “I turned down Julie because I didn’t agree with the reasoning of the protagonist in the story, who resorts to prostitution because her man ditches her. I didn’t see why any educated girl would take such a drastic step. I take up roles that I mentally agree with, and this was not such a role”.[21] The same years Celina appeared in the Telugu drama Suryam opposite Vishnu Manchu.
