Govinda

Govinda (born Govind Arun Ahuja ) (Born: December 13, 1963) is an Indian film actor known for his work in Bollywood. Govinda has received twelve Filmfare Awards nominations, won a Filmfare Special Award, won a Filmfare Award for Best Comedian, and has received four Zee Cine Awards. Govinda is also a former politician. His debut was in Ilzaam in 1986 and has since appeared in over 165 Hindi films. In June 1999, Govinda was voted the tenth greatest star of stage or screen of the last thousand years by BBC News Online users.

His earlier films in the 1980s were in a variety of genres including family, drama, action, and romance. In the 1990s, he gained recognition as a comic actor after playing a mischievous young NCC cadet in the romantic movie Shola Aur Shabnam (1992) opposite the late Divya Bharti. He played leading roles in several commercially successful comedy films in the 1990s such as Aankhen (1993), Raja Babu (1994), Coolie No. 1 (1995), Hero No. 1 (1997) and Haseena Maan Jaayegi (1999). He received the Filmfare Best Comedian Award for Haseena Maan Jayegi and Filmfare Special Award for Saajan Chale Sasural. He has successfully played dual roles in several movies including Jaan Se Pyaara (1992), Aankhen (1993), Bade Miyan Chote Miyan (1998) and Anari No.1 (1999). Apart from double roles, he has also successfully played six roles of his own family in Hadh Kar Di Aapne (2000), one being Raju and others being Raju's mom, Raju's dad, Raju's sister, Raju's Grandmother and Raju's Grandfather.

Govinda is nicknamed as 'No. 1' because of the series of films he has done ending with "No. 1" tag like Coolie No. 1, Hero No. 1, Aunty No. 1, Anari No.1, Beti No. 1 and Jodi No.1, popularly known as No. 1 (film series). Govinda is the only actor after Akshay Kumar in Bollywood who has done a series of films with a specific title. Akshay Kumar acted in 8 films of Khiladi (film series) while Govinda has done 6 films of No. 1 (film series).

After a period of box office flops in the 2000s, his recent commercial successes have been Bhagam Bhag (2006), Partner (2007), Life Partner (2009) and Raavan (2010).

In 2015, Govinda became as one of the judges of Zee TV's popular dance based reality show Dance India Dance Super Mom Season 2 replacing Mithun Chakraborty. The show garnered the highest TRP for any opening episode of a reality show.

In addition to film acting, he was a member of the Indian National Congress Party. He was elected as the seventh Member of Parliament for the Mumbai North Constituency of Maharashtra, India in the 14th Lok Sabha elections in 2004. He defeated Ram Naik of the Bharatiya Janata Party. His constituency was succeeded by Sanjay Nirupam (also from Congress) in 2009 when Govinda choose to pursue his films.