Meet actress, who debuted with Ajay Devgn, is Hema Malini's cousin, struggled for films, her husband is Juhi Chawla's...

Born as Madhoobala Raghunath Malini in a Tamil family in 1969, Madhoo Shah is a popular Indian actress who has worked in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada films. In 1991, she made her Bollywood debut opposite Ajay Devgn in Phool Aur Kaante. The action romance drama also marked the debut of Devgn, and became a blockbuster. An year later, Madhoo gained immense popularity with the Tamil romantic thriller Roja, which starred Arvind Swamy as the male lead.

Many people are still unaware of the fact that Madhoo is Hema Malini's cousin and her father was a producer. Despite coming from a film family, the actress struggles for films. Speaking to Bollywood Bubble, Madhoo said, "My father was a producer. I am from Hema Malini's family, she is my cousin. My mother was a dancer. My whole background was around dance, music, and films. But whatever I did, I did it myself. First of all, it was a struggle that I had to tell my father that I want to become an actor. Because he wanted me to become a doctor. Second, I did not have support and I did not have confidence. I felt that if I told people that I wanted to become an actor, people would laugh. I had to get out of self-doubt. I did not even know how to approach someone for work. All this was a big struggle for me. First of all, I got rejection."

She further added how she was replaced in her first film as she added, "My father was a producer, so he had a film Awaargi, which had Anil Kapoor, Govinda, and Meenakshi. I had gone for the song recording of that film. When a producer saw me there, he told my father that he wanted to cast me in a film. But my father got angry about it. But then I told my father to say yes. Then he got me trained. But when the film started, after four days only, he felt that I was not ready and I was replaced."

Madhoo further shared how she discovered in a magazine that she had been replaced in the film. At the time, she was only 16 or 17 years old and was deeply shocked by the rejection. However, instead of letting the setback affect her, she chose to work harder. Through dedicated training, she gained both confidence and experience, and went on to become a successful actress.

The actress is also related to Juhi Chawla. In 1999, Madhoo tied the knot with Anand Shah, who is the cousin of Juhi Chawla's husband Jay Mehta. Talking about the same, she told Zoom Entertainment, "Juhi ji came into my life much later as a family member, only after I got married. And when I got married, I had kind of left the industry. So her being in the family, emotionally, or mentally, or physically, did not affect me."

On the work front, Madhoo was last seen in the Hindi psychological thriller Kartam Bhugtam, which was released in May 2024. She also appeared in the Malayalam anthology series Manorathangal, which premiered on ZEE5 on  August 15 last year coinciding with Independence Day.