Born on August 6, 1986, television actress Dipika Kakar, who gained immense popularity with the show Sasural Simar Ka, did her schooling across the country, as her father was in the army and hence her family travelled a lot. She completed her schooling from CBSE board. (All photos/Dipika Kakar's official Instagram account)

After Dipika's father retired from the Indian Army, her family settled in Pune. A few years later, she came to Mumbai to pursue further education. The actress completed her graduation from the University of Mumbai.

After graduation, Dipika Kakar took up a job with Jet Airways as an air hostess. She worked for almost three years, but she couldn't become an international air hostess due to her health issues.

Though becoming an air hostess was Dipika Kakar's dream, health has been important to her irrespective of her hectic job and hence, she quit and joined the glam world.

In 2010, Dipika Kakar made her acting debut with the TV serial Neer Bhare Tere Naina Devi, in which she played the role of Lakshmi.

In 2011, Dipika Kakar appeared in Agle Janam Mohe Bitiya Hi Kijo. She played the role of lead actress Ratan Rajput's sister in the show.

In 2012, Dipika Kakar starred as the lead character in Sasural Simar Ka, which ran for six years. The show began by telling the tale of two sisters who get married in the same family, and their life at their in-laws' place. It went through many twists and turns and gave a huge boost to Dipika's career.

Ever since then there has been no looking back for Dipika Kakar. However, despite getting huge popularity pan India, she has never longed to be on the silver screen. "I have never aspired to be on the big screen. I'm very happy and satisfied with TV because I think I am suitable for it," she said.

On the personal front, Dipika Kakar fell in love with her Sasural Simar Ka co-star Shoaib Ibrahim. The couple came closer on the sets of the show and after a courtship of around seven years, Dipika and Shoaib got married in 2018.

Talking about their relationship, Dipika said, "Shoaib and I have connected in the most difficult part of each other's life and we have seen distance, we have been away, so the fear of breaking up is not there between us."

"I always believe that there's a phase in every relationship where you are madly in love in the beginning, then you madly fight and then you cross that to have a very strong relationship. I think we have already crossed the fight stage so now we share a very matured equation and our base is very strong because we love each other a lot and with the matured understanding it just clicks perfectly," Dipika Kakar added.

Dipika Kakar was earlier married to her long-term boyfriend Raunaq Samson which went kaput. She got married in 2008 and divorced in 2015.

There were speculations that Dipika's ex-husband Raunak Samson alleged that his marriage with Dipika was in trouble, because of her affair with Shoaib. But Dipika time and again denied the speculations that Shoaib was the reason behind their divorce.

Post marriage, Dipika Kakar appeared in Bigg Boss season 12 and her journey had been quite uneventful, without too much melodrama in the house.

After a three-month-long battle inside the Bigg Boss 12 house, TV actress Dipika Kakar defeated former Indian cricketer Sreesanth to bag the reality show trophy. Dipika received a cash prize worth Rs 30 lakh and a trophy by host Salman Khan. She was last seen in the television show Kahaan Hum Kahaan Tum along with Karan V Grover.

Dipika Kakar has truly come a long way! Without a godfather, the actress has achieved great success to her credit.

Here's wishing a very happy birthday to Dipika!