Born on March 13, 1984, Geeta Basra was born and brought up in England. Geeta had performed on stage when she was all of two and had also done theatre during her school days in Portsmouth. She always dreamt to become an actress in the Hindi film industry and that landed her in Mumbai. Geeta was very young when she moved to Mumbai. (All photos/Geeta Basra'a official Instagram account, AFP and mid-day archives)
Very few know that before entering Bollywood, Geeta Basra wanted to become a criminal psychologist, as the human mind had always intrigued her.
After doing a couple of ad shoots and small modelling assignments, Geeta Basra joined filmdom in 2006 with Dil Diya Hai, in which she was paired opposite Emraan Hashmi. In her second film The Train (2007) also, she teamed up with the same actor.
However, none of the films helped Geeta gain a name as a promising actress in Bollywood. Geeta Basra almost vanished from the film industry, after facing two back-to-back duds. She even appeared in 2014's Joe B. Carvalho, which too failed to impress the audience.
Nevertheless, despite staying away from films, Geeta Basra managed to stay in the limelight for her link-up with cricketer Harbhajan Singh.
At the IPL awards ceremony in 2010, host Shah Rukh Khan, in his inimitable style, had taken a potshot at Harbhajan Singh by asking, "Bhajji apka ghar kab Basra hai?" While a blushing Bhajji couldn't help but grin, SRK bounced the next question, "Gita ki kasam kha kar kaho?" Bowled?
In 2008, when Bhajji was shaking a leg in the reality show Ek Haseena Ek Khiladi, Geeta Basra was spotted with him at a Bandra five-star hotel. Geeta had then maintained, "We are just friends and there is nothing more to it. Whenever he is in Mumbai, we catch up. He is a fun-loving guy and we just chill out."
While Bhajji has stated, "Yes, I do know Geeta. She is a lovely girl and a Punjabi like me. We do meet for dinners but we have common friends. Just because I am seen with someone, does not mean anything."
While the hide and seek and "we are just good friends" continued for almost seven years, Geeta Basra and Harbhajan Singh started hanging out together publicly, thus making it almost official by 2015.
In picture: Harbhajan Singh poses with his wife Geeta Basra during their marriage ceremony in Jalandhar on October 29, 2015.
Nevertheless, Geeta Basra and Harbhajan Singh preferred to keep mum about their personal life. Geeta went on to say that when she decides to get married, everyone will know.
In picture: Geeta Basra with husband Harbhajan Singh and daughter Hinaya Heer Plaha.
Asked when she is planning to settle down with Harbhajan, Geeta told IANS in 2015, "Whenever it happens, you all will definitely get to know. I don't like to talk about my personal life. Anyway, I get to read 20 stories daily about me marrying Harbhajan, but I'll talk about it only whenever it happens."
However, in October 2015, Indian fashion designer A.D. Singh took to Twitter to post a picture of the red and gold wedding invitation, with Geeta and Bhajji's initials on it and captioned it 'Countdown to Wedding of the year of my friends @Geeta_Basra & @harbhajan_singh Royalty & Class! #GeetawedsBhajji #bridal.' The couple got hitched on October 29, 2015.
Harbhajan Singh had revealed on No Filter Neha how he took a couple of months to woo his wife Geeta Basra. "I saw her [Geeta] in one of her posters and I asked Yuvraj Singh if he knew her. To which, Yuvi replied, he didn't. I asked him to find out. We have a friend named Suved Lohia who knew Geeta and he sent a message to her. After the World Cup [2011] win, I came back and sent a message, asking her to meet me over a cup of coffee. But she didn't reply. Before IPL, she sent me a message asking for some tickets. The tickets were not for her, but for her driver. To return the favour, she met me and then we kept meeting. And all of a sudden, she said no as she wanted to focus on her career. I took eight to nine months to convince her."
In July 2016, Geeta Basra and Harbhajan Singh were blessed with a daughter. Geeta gave birth to a baby girl in a London hospital. The couple named their daughter Hinaya Heer Plaha.
Geeta Basra is learning the piano now. Growing up in England, the actor had taken violin lessons, but after moving to India, music took a backseat. Now that she has rekindled her passion, Basra has started learning the piano with daughter Hinaya, who will turn 4 this year.
In picture: Harbhajan Singh, Geeta Basra, Avtar Kaur (Bhajji's mom) and little Hinaya.
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