Ayesha Takia was born in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India to a Hindu father and Muslim mother, having the ethnicity of Gujarati.She is a Catholic She is an alumnus of St Anthony's Girls High School, Chembur. She married restaurateur Farhan Azmi, son of Samajwadi Party leader Abu Azmi, on 1 March 2009. She has a son with her husband Farhan Azmi.
Career
Takia began her career as a model when she was 15, appearing in the "I am a Complan Boy! I’m a Complan Girl!" campaign along with Shahid Kapoor and also in Falguni Pathak's "Meri Chunar Udd Udd Jaye" music video. Later she appeared in the music video Shake It Daddy Remix of song Nahin Nahin Abhi Nahin along with actor Keith Sequeira, both the songs were directed by Vinay Sapru and Radhika Rao. Which brought her to the attention of Bollywood, and a few film offers followed. She signed a contract to appear in Socha Na Tha, then for . However, delays making Socha Na Tha meant that Taarzan was released first and was therefore her "debut" film. She won the Filmfare Best Debut Award in 2004 for her performance in the film. Takia has appeared in a number of films that did poorly at the box office. However, she has been highly praised for her work in the 2006 Dor, a smaller budget film in which she plays the role of a young widowed Rajasthani woman living in a traditional joint family. She went on to win several awards for her performance in the film, including the Zee Cine Critics Award for Best Actress. Apart from Bollywood, Takia has also appeared in the 2005 Telugu film Super, with Tollywood star Akkineni Nagarjuna, for which she was nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Telugu. Her most recent hit was Prabhu Deva's Wanted, co-starring Salman Khan, which emerged as one of the biggest blockbusters of 2009. The film was the third-highest-grossing movie of the year and her role met with positive reviews. In 2011, she starred in Mod, which met with a good response. In 2012, she hosted the only season of musical-reality show Sur Kshetra.
Personal life
Takia is very active on social media, especially Twitter and has been a supporter for wildlife protection. In April 2014, Ayesha denounced her father-in-law, the Samajwadi Party legislator Abu Azmi, for saying that rape victims should also be punished. In a public statement, she stated she is a vegan while posing for a vegan ad for PETA India.
