Harshaali Malhotra Pic/Instagram
Harshaali Malhotra, who portrayed the role of Shahida in the 2015 Salman Khan starrer 'Bajrangi Bhaijaan', scored an impressive 83 percent in 10th grade. Reacting to those who spewed hate against her taking on acting before completing her studies, she shared a video on Instagram and wrote, "From perfecting my Mudras to acing my academics, I managed to strike the perfect balance between my Kathak classes, Shoots, and Studies. And the result? An impressive 83% score! Who says you can't have your feet in both the reel and real world? A heartfelt thank you to everyone who believed in me and continues to offer their unwavering support."
In an interview with Hindustan Times, Harshaali said, "My first reaction after seeing the marks was just a lot of excitement. We got to know that the result was out at the last minute, so it is good that we didn't have any time to get nervous before. We just opened the site and saw the result. My parents were also elated to see my hard work pay off".
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In 'Bajrangi Bhaijaan', Harshaali played the role of Shahida also known as 'Munni', a Pakistani Muslim girl who gets lost in India and travels back to her homeland with the help of an Indian, Pavan Kumar Chaturvedi. Her performance as a mute girl was critically praised and earned her the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut nomination, making her the youngest person to be nominated in the category.
Director Kabir Khan said the casting of Munni was central to the film, and a wrong casting choice would have drowned it. In an interaction on IMDb, Khan said, "After all these years, If I were to speak about one aspect of the making of 'Bajrangi Bhaijaan', I would speak about the hunt for the girl who would portray Munni. After writing the script, I knew our biggest challenge would be to find the correct casting for Munni.
"We must have ended up auditioning at least 2,000, you know, little girls from the age of five to six or seven. We finally zeroed in on Harshaali Malhotra, who was pure magic on screen, and the chemistry with Salman was bang on. And I remember the first time I took her to Salman's house in Galaxy (in Mumbai). Right from there on, you could see the chemistry between them," he added.
Harshaali has also appeared in television soaps like âQubool Hai' and âLaut Aao Trisha', besides a few commercials.
