Bipasha Basu: Bollywood's Femme Fatale@36

Bengali bombshell Bipasha Basu has a lot to look forward to as she turns a year older. The actress and fitness freak, who appeared in a string for horror flicks last year, will soon be seen in another horror-thriller film Alone.

On her 36th birthday, we gift the actress a pictorial look of her journey in Bollywood up till now.

Nicknamed Bonny, Bipasha was born on January 7, 1979 in New Delhi.

Bipasha is the second of three sisters. Her parents were based in Delhi and later moved to Kolkata. As a child, Bipasha was a tomboy - in her own words, "the lady gunda of the neighbourhood."

She was a good student and held positions of prefect and then head girl of Bhavan's Gangabux Kanoria Vidyamandir in Kolkata.

Bipasha entered the world of modelling and acting quite by accident. Her original plan was to study medicine.
In Kolkata, she modeled part time. Despite her medical aspirations, an aversion to dissections made her opt for chartered accountancy.

Though she wanted to be a doctor, her aversion for dissections made her opt for chartered accountancy.

In 1996, she met model Mehr Jessia (now actor Arjun Rampal's wife) who suggested she take part in the Godrej Cinthol Supermodel contest. She eventually participated and won the contest.

Bipasha went on to be the Ford Supermodel of the World in December 1996 and her modelling contracts took her to New York and Paris.

In 1998, Bipasha appeared in the famous video Tu for Sonu Nigam's album, Kismat. Later, she made a guest appearance in Jay Sean's music video Stolen (2004).

The sultry beauty made her film debut in Abbas Mustan's Ajnabee (2001), with Akshay Kumar, Bobby Deol and Kareena Kapoor. She won the Filmfare Best Female Debut Award.

In 2002, she starred in Vikram Bhatt's thriller Raaz. The movie was a big commercial success and surfaced as the biggest hit of that year. For her performance in Raaz, Bipasha received her first Best Actress nomination at the Filmfare Awards.

She appeared as Sonia Khanna in the 2003 hit Jism alongside actor John Abraham. The movie earned her a Filmfare Best Villain Award nomination.

Bipasha again paired up with John for Aetbaar (2004). Amitabh Bachchan also played an important role in the movie.

The Bipasha-John pair became quite a favourite with filmmakers, and the duo again appeared on screen together in Madhoshi (2004).

Bipasha made her foray into comedy with the 2005 hit No Entry. She was nominated for the Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award for her performance in the film.

In 2005, she also appeared in her first off-beat film - Prakash Jha's Apaharan, alongside Ajay Devgn.

Madhur Bhandarkar's Corporate in 2006 earned Bipasha her second Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award nomination.

The same year, Bipasha's performance (and particularly the songs picturised on her) in Vishal Bharadwaj's Omkara were praised. Beedi Jalaile was a huge hit.

Bipasha appeared in a double role in the 2006 blockbuster Dhoom: 2. The film had Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan playing the lead roles.

The next big Bipasha hit was the Abbas-Mustan's 2008 film Race. In the same year, she also appeared in Bachna Ae Haseeno. Her performance fetched her a nomination for the Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award.

2009 was a mixed year for Bipasha with Aa Dekhen Zara not making much of an impact and All The Best: Fun Begins turning out to be a hit at the box office.

Bipasha also appeared in her first ever Bengali film, Shob Choritro Kalponik, in 2009.

Her releases in 2010 were Aakrosh, Pankh and Lamhaa.

In 2011, Bipasha had just one release Dum Maaro Dum - which was a flop. Abhishek Bachchan, Rana Daggubati and Prateik Babbar were also a part of the movie.

Players and Jodi Breakers didn't start the year 2012 on a positive note for Bipasha, but Raaz 3 saw the actress smiling again.

Bipasha's Aatma (2013) turned out to be a damp squib at the box office.

2014 was also not kind to Bipasha as both her films Humshakals and Creature 3D bombed at the box office.

Humshakals particularly was a huge disappointment for the actress as she was not happy with the final outcome of the film. The actress all but disowned the film, refusing to appear at promotions ahead of release.

This year, Bipasha will be seen in yet another horror thriller film - Alone, co-starring television heartthrob Karan Singh Grover. The film is directed by Bhushan Patel, who has Ragini MMS 2 and 1920: Evil Returns on his resume. Alone is a remake of a Thai film by the same name.

Off-screen, Bipasha first dated actor Dino Morea for six years, when they were both models, but broke up with him in 2002. She then dated her Jism co-star John Abraham but the pair broke up in 2011. Bipasha then dated actor Harman Baweja but announced a separation last November.

Bipasha has been linked to her Alone co-star Karan Singh Grover, who also recently separated from his wife Jennifer Winget. Apart from the promotions, Karan has been spotted hanging out with Bipasha and her friends at various parties and vacations.

We wish Bipasha a very happy birthday.

This image was posted on Instagram by Bipasha Basu