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Meet actress who competed with Aishwarya Rai, made debut with Akshay Kumar, quit Bollywood to become...
Barkha Madan, competed with Aishwarya Rai and Sushmita Sen in Miss India, made her Bollywood debut in Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi with Akshay Kumar, and quit acting in 2012 to become a Buddhist monk. Read on to know more about her journey from showbiz to spirituality.
Updated : Feb 04, 2024, 11:25 AM IST | Edited by : Aman Wadhwa
 "Barkha Madan/Instagram")
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From Zaira Wasim to Sana Khan, there have been multiple celebrities who have left the world of showbiz to follow spirituality. One such name is Barkha Madan, who was a popular model, beauty queen, and actress who left her acting career to become a Buddhist monk and is now known as Gyalten Samten.
A popular face in the modelling industry, Barkha participated in the beauty pageant Miss India in 1994 and competed with Sushmita Sen and Aishwarya Rai, who were crowned the winner and the first runner-up respectively. Barkha was named Miss Tourism India and ended up coming as the third runner-up in Miss Tourism International in Malaysia.
In 1996, she made her Bollywood debut in the action film Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi, which starred Akshay Kumar, Rekha, and Raveena Tandon in the leading roles. The film proved to be a blockbuster, but it took Barkha seven more years to earn her next notable role in Ram Gopal Varma's Bhoot in 2003. She terrified the critics and audiences when she played the ghost Manjeet Khosla in the supernatural horror film Bhoot. Barkha made her presence felt in the hugely talented ensemble that included Ajay Devgn, Urmila Matondkar, Nana Patekar, Rekha, Fardeen Khan, and Tanuja.
Between Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi and Bhoot, Barkha had starred in multiple TV serials including the social drama Nyaay and the historical drama 1857 Kranti, in which she portrayed Rani Laxmibai. After Bhoot, when Barkha didn't get the roles she wanted, she moved back to TV. From 2005 to 2009, she was seen in the popular Zee TV show Saat Phere – Saloni Ka Safar, which starred Rajshree Thakur and Sharad Kelkar in the lead roles.
The actress decided to turn producer in 2010 and launched Golden Gate LLC, to promote talented independent filmmakers. She produced and starred in two films namely Soch Lo and Surkhaab. Barkha, who has been an avid follower of Dalai Lama throughout her life, decided to embrace Buddhism in 2012. She became a monk and changed her name to Gyalten Samten. Today, she lives in the monasteries in the mountains and keeps on sharing photos from her spiritual life on her Instagram.
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