10 Famous Celebrities Who Were Background Dancers Prior To Stardom

10 Kajal Aggarwal

Kajal Aggarwal is a popular name in Indian film industry. Apart from acting in Hindi movies, she has also established herself as one of the leading heroines in Tamil and Telugu film industries. Aggarwal, who has been nominated for four Filmfare Awards (South) over the years, has been part of many successful films across various film producing industries and languages. But not many people know that before rising to fame, she worked as a background dancer. Kajal took a plunge in showbiz with Samir Karnik directed 2004 Bollywood flick ‘Kyun! Ho Gaya Na…’ The actress is seen in the popular song “Pyar Mein Sau Uljhanne Hai”, featuring Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Vivek Oberoi. At that time, no one had thought that the girl dancing behind stars like Aishwarya and Vivek would go on to become a force to reckon with in Indian cinema.

After her brief appearance in Samir Karnik’s not so successful film, Kajal had to wait for 3 years before bagging her first film as a lead. She made her debut with Telugu film ‘Lakshmi Kalyanam’ in 2007. Though the movie was not a great success commercially, people noticed and applauded her performance in it. In the same year, she featured in Krishna Vamsi’s ‘Chandamama’ which emerged as a box office hit and helped her bag more film offers from leading Tamil and Telugu film producers. Kajal’s breakout film was distinguished filmmaker SS Rajamouli’s fantasy drama ‘Magadheera’. The Telugu film, which starred Ram Charan as the leading man, hit screens in 2009 and turned out to be one of the biggest blockbusters of the year. She subsequently starred in a number of financially and critically successful movies such as ‘Darling’ (2010), ‘Mr. Perfect’ (2011), ‘Businessman’ (2012), ‘Naayak’ (2013), ‘Baadshah’ (2013), ‘Govindudu Andarivadele’ (2014), ‘Temper’ (2015) and ‘Khaidi No. 150’ (2017).

Besides cementing her position in Telugu cinema, the actress strengthened her foothold in Tamil films as well by starring in a number of successful movies like ‘Naan Mahaan Alla’ (2010), ‘Maattrraan’ (2012), ‘Thuppakki’ (2012), ‘Jilla’ (2014) and ‘Mersal’ (2017). Her successful Bollywood projects include ‘Singham’ (2011), and ‘Special 26’ (2013). Currently, Kajal is busy with the shooting of her upcoming Tamil film ‘Paris Paris’, which is a remake of Kangana Ranaut’s Bollywood blockbuster film ‘Queen’ (2014).

TRIVIA: Kajal graduated from K.C. College, Mumbai with a degree in Mass Media.