Meet Saif Ali Khan’s heroine, Brazilian model who debuted with Rs 100-crore hit, later left Bollywood to become….

Written By Riya Sharma | Updated: Sep 20, 2024, 08:39 AM IST

Giselli Monteiro

This actress who made her debut with Rs 100-crore hit, left Bollywood for a different profession.

Many actress like Bhagyashree, Zaira Wasim and more left Bollywood despite recieving success with their debut film itself. One such actress who romanced Saif Ali Khan in debut film, gained fame, later left Bollywood to become an architect. 

The actress we are talking about was a Brazillian model who started her modeling career at the age of 17. She worked with Deepika Padukone and later left Bollywood after doing just three films. She is none other than Giselli Monteiro. 

Giselli Monteiro is a former Brazilian model born in Espírito Santo, Brazil. She started her modeling career when she was just 17 years old. She came to Mumbai, India in 2008. She made her Bollywood debut in Imtiaz Ali’s film Love Aaj Kal. She was purposely kept under wraps during the film's promotion. Following the film's release, her identity was revealed, and it was also revealed that she had approached Imtiaz through designer Anaita Shroff Adajania to audition for the role of Jo, Saif Ali Khan's girlfriend in the second half of the film, but, on his wife's suggestion Imtiaz took her for Harleen's part, especially since he had not been able to cast for that role despite auditioning girls from all over India.

Love Aaj Kal was a major success at the box office. The film that also starred Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone and Rishi Kapoor in key roles, earned Rs 120 crore at the box office. The film opened doors for Giselli in Bollywood. 

However, the actress’ career in Bollywood was quite short lived. After Love Aaj Kal, she starred in the movie Always Kabhi Kabhi and Pranam Walekum and in 2015, the actress quit the film industry to study architecture. 

She left India and moved back to Brazil. When asked about her decision to quit Bollywood, she said, "Love Aaj Kal happened within the first month of me coming to India to [work as a] model. The film did well, for which I am grateful. Always Kabhi Kabhi didn’t turn out as we expected [it to], but there were other requests thereafter. I was also modeling and doing endorsements side-by-side. But to be honest, I never intended to be in films." 

The actress is now living a life away from the limelight in Brazil. However, she is quite active on social media and often posts about her whereabouts on Instagram where she has 17.3K followers. 

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