Smriti Zubin Irani is an Indian politician, former model, television actress, and producer. Smriti is a Minister in the Union Cabinet of India. Her mother was a member of Jana Sangh and her grandfather was an RSS Swayamsevak. When Smriti Irani was still a schoolgirl in Delhi, her parents had invited an astrologer to predict their three daughters’ futures. The astrologer declared that while her two younger sisters would do all right, “Badi Ladki Ka Kuchh Nahin Hoga.”

In an interview, she revealed that her parents had no big dreams for her either; they just wanted her to get married to a good boy. Growing up in Delhi, Smriti wanted to become either a civil servant or a journalist. However, her father didn’t approve of any of them; as he thought that neither profession would suit her. Thereafter, she packed her bags for Mumbai, where she participated in the Femina Miss India contest in 1998. However, she couldn’t reach the top 9. In the contest, Lymaraina D’Souza had become the winner.

In the early days of her career, Irani worked at McDonald’s in Bandra, Mumbai as a waitress. She appeared in a song of the album “Saawan Mein Lag Gayi Aag” with Mika Singh in 1998. Smriti was first spotted by the TV producer Shobha Kapoor (Ekta Kapoor’s mother) when she was working with the producer of a show called Bakeman’s Ooh La La. In the mid-2000, she became a household name when she played the role of Tulsi Virani in Ekta Kapoor’s production “Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi” on Star Plus. The serial ran for eight years and Smriti became India’s most loved Bahu. Smriti says she never saw even a single episode of the serial though. Before her TV stint, Smriti had also done numerous modeling assignments. She holds the record for the maximum number (consecutively five times) of the Indian Television Academy Awards for Best Actress (popular). Reportedly, she developed differences with Ekta Kapoor and left the show in 2007. However, in 2008, she made a comeback in a special episode. She also played the mythological role of Sita in Zee TV’s Ramayan in 2001.

In 2003, while Kyunki… was still at its peak, Smriti joined the BJP, a party that was then looking after a high-profile showbiz star into its fold. In the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections, she contested unsuccessfully against Rahul Gandhi from the Amethi constituency in Uttar Pradesh. Prime Minister Narendra Modi appointed her as HRD Minister in his cabinet on 26 May 2014, making her the youngest Cabinet Minister at that time. Smriti has also been one of the BJP’s most visible faces in media interactions. She has always been in demand for rallies and campaigning as she is fluent in Hindi, English, Gujarati, Marathi, and Bengali. During her campaign in the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, in which she went on to defeat Rahul Gandhi, she did firefighter avatar in dousing a fire that had broken out in a village in Amethi.

Smriti Irani Bio