Farah Khan

Farah Khan Kunder (born 9 January 1965)[1] is an Indian film director, film producer, actress, dancer and choreographer who works predominantly in Hindi films. Khan has choreographed dance routines for more than a hundred songs in over 80 films, winning six Filmfare Awards for Best Choreography and the National Film Award for Best Choreography. In addition, she has worked on Tamil films and also in international projects, such as Marigold: An Adventure in India, Monsoon Wedding, Bombay Dreams and the Chinese films Perhaps Love and Kung Fu Yoga, earning Tony Award and Golden Horse Award nominations. She has since become a film director as well, with nominations for the Filmfare Award for Best Director for her directorial debut Main Hoon Na (2004) and her second directorial venture Om Shanti Om (2007).

Farah Khan was born on 9 January 1965. Her father, Kamran Khan, is a stuntman-turned-filmmaker. Her mother, Menaka Irani, is the sister of former child actors Honey Irani and Daisy Irani.[2] Farah is thus a first cousin of film personalities Farhan Akhtar and Zoya Akhtar (children of Honey Irani). She has one brother, Sajid Khan, who is a comedian, actor and film director.

While Farah’s father is a Muslim, her mother is a Irani Zoroastrian.[3] Their marriage broke up when Farah was still a toddler. One reason for this was religion; another was the shortage of money. Kamran Khan had initially been very successful and prosperous, so much so that, when his sister-in-law Honey Irani married a poverty-stricken poet named Javed Akhtar, the newly-weds turned to Kamran for help and he gave them an apartment to live in free of rent. However, Kamran then began losing money badly as his film ventures flopped; his marriage collapsed at the same time. Farah, therefore, saw very little of her father while growing up. Since neither parent had any money left, Farah and Sajid were shuttled between different homes.[4]

Farah Khan married Shirish Kunder, the editor of her film Main Hoon Na,[5] on 9 December 2004. They have since worked together on each other’s films, such as Jaan-E-Mann, Om Shanti Om, and Tees Maar Khan. Khan gave birth to triplets — one son and two daughters — in 2008 through in vitro fertilisation.[6]