Happy birthday, Madhuri: 15 things you didn’t know about the Dhak Dhak Girl

As actor Madhuri Dixit-Nene celebrates her 50th birthday today on May 15, here are 15 facts about her that you probably didn’t know. From not having Bollywood as her first choice of career to being paid more than Salman Khan for Hum Aapke Hain Koun, we have compiled a list of interesting trivia about her. 

1. She has a degree in microbiology. Initially, Madhuri had no interest in pursuing a career in Bollywood. Her first film was Abodh (1984), but she came into the limelight with Tezaab (1988).

2. Madhuri is the only female actor to be nominated for Filmfare awards 14 times. Out of this, she has received the iconic Black Lady trophy four times in the Best Actress category and twice in other categories. 

3. A trained Kathak dancer, Madhuri is the only female actor of her times to have been choreographed by Kathak exponent Pandit Birju Maharaj. He even went on to say that she is the best dancer in Bollywood.

4. The actor had to wear a costume that weighed 30kg for a song in Devdas. It was conceptualised and designed by designer Neeta Lulla.

5. Acclaimed artist late MF Husain was besotted by her beauty and claimed to have watched her film, Hum Aapke Hain Koun (1994) 67 times. She became his muse, inspiring a string of paintings and even a movie, by the name of Gaja Gamini (2000) with Shah Rukh Khan.

6. A fan of hers from Jamshedpur once appealed to the government to declare her birthday as a National Holiday. He even created a calendar where the new year began with her birthday.

7. She is the recipient of the Padma Shri award (2008), India’s fourth-highest civilian award.

8. She was the highest paid female actor of her time. It is rumoured that she received a sum of INR 2.7 crore for Hum Aapke Hain Koun, which was more than what her co-actor, Salman Khan was paid.

9. She married Los Angeles based Dr Shriram Madhav Nene on October 17, 1999 and took a sabbatical from films. She settled in the US where she raised her two sons, Raayan and Arin.

10. She is involved in many humanitarian and animal welfare causes. She was appointed the Goodwill Ambassador Advocate for Child and Equal Woman’s Rights in 2014.

11. She has a star named after her in the Orion constellation. A group of her fans made this possible. The certificate from the Star Foundation reads: “A celestial body in the sky above has been named in honour of Madhuri Dixit-Nene and is officially located in the constellation Orion.”

12. She starred alongside Mithun Chakraborthy, Aditya Pancholi, Sadashiv Amrapurkar,Shakti Kapoor, Paresh Rawal in a film called Maha Paap(1990) which was later shelved.

13. Madhuri signed Vijay Anand’ s film Jana Na Dil Se Door that co-starred Dev Anand and Inder Kumar (who was replaced by Rajeshwar). She left the film before shoot commenced.

14. Her debut film was a flop, followed by a slew of flops. She had nine back-to-back flops between 1984 and 1988, but that didn’t deter her from following her dreams.

15. She launched her own virtual dance academy where users can login to upload their dance videos, learn different dance forms and also participate in contests.

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