Sameer Soni Biography

Soni was born to a Punjabi Hindu family in London, United Kingdom and attended school at St. Xavier's School, Delhi. He graduated from University of California, Los Angeles summa cum laude in Economics. Prior to his Bollywood career, Samir was an investment banker with one of the bulge bracket firms on Wall Street in New York, before coming back to India to start modeling. He has attended acting courses in New York and Los Angeles.

Personal life

Through modeling, he met his ex-spouse Rajlaxmi Khanvilkar. The two were wed for six months before they divorced. After that Soni was involved in a three year relationship with the late Nafisa Joseph, Miss India 1997. Khanvilkar is now wed to one-time actor Rahul Roy.

Acting career

Soni made his acting debut as Ashok Gupta in Doordarshan's A Mouthful Of Sky (1996), based on Ashok Banker's script and directed by Mahesh Bhatt. He made his film debut opposite actress Mamta Kulkarni in China Gate (1998), though it was pursued by forgettable cameos in films. In 2003, Samir shot to fame by appearing in the film Baghban and played lead roles in Basti and Kahan Ho Tum. In that same year, Soni beside worked in the popular television series Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin that aired on Sony. In 2004, he worked in another popular show on Sony channel called Saaksshi.