Juhi Chawla is an Indian actress who primarily works in Hindi films, in addition to Kannada, Punjabi, Telugu, Bengali, Tamil and Malayalam films. The winner of Miss India 1984 pageant, she made her acting debut with Sultanat in 1986. Her first commercial success was the Kannada film Premaloka (1987). She won the Filmfare Award for Lux New Face of the Year and received a nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Actress, for the critical and commercial success Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988), which also established her career.[1] She rose to prominence with films like Amar Prem (1989), Vicky Daada (1989), Love Love Love (1989), Pratibandh (1990), Swarg (1990), Benaam Badsha (1991), Bol Radha Bol (1992) and Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman (1992), most of which proved to be commercial successes.
By 1993 she had become one of the prolific actors of Bollywood, through appearing in Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke (1993), which established her as a comic actress and for which she won the Filmfare Award for Best Actress, the action movie Lootere (1993), the family drama Aaina (1993), and Darr (1993), which established her acting versatility. All these four films proved to be box office successes, and further established Chawla's acting career in Bollywood.
Subsequent critical and commercial successes included Andaz (1994), Saajan Ka Ghar (1994), Ram Jaane (1995), Naajayaz (1995), Loafer (1996), Deewana Mastana (1997), Yes Boss (1997), Ishq (1997), Mr and Mrs Khiladi (1997), Duplicate (1998), and Arjun Pandit (1999). Her body of work in the 1990s also featured Daraar (1996), Saat Rang Ke Sapne (1998), and Arjun Pandit (1999). In the 2000s, Chawla began developing an interest in art-house films and hence she took up several non commercial films such as Jhankaar Beats (2003), 3 Deewarein (2003), My Brother Nikhil (2005), 7½ Phere (2005), Bas Ek Pal (2006), and Swami (2007). She especially received critical acclaim for her performance in 3 Deewarein and My Brother Nikhil.[2][3][4] Among her works in 2008 were Bhoothnath and Krazzy 4, the first of which was a moderate commercial success.
In 1999, Chawla collaborated with Shah Rukh Khan and Aziz Mirza, and formed her own production company along with them, which was named Dreamz Unlimited. Their first productional venture was Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani (2000), which proved to be the thirteenth highest grosser of the year, but failed commercially. It was followed by Aśoka (2001), which was also a commercial failure, and its commercial failure attributed to a setback. The last feature which Dreamz Unlimited produced was Chalte Chalte (2003), which was a box office success, but after this they parted ways, due to a conflict between the workers.