Happy Birthday, Rashmi Desai: How She Became The Highest-paid TV Actress

Popular television actress Rashmi Desai celebrates her 38th birthday today. From being one of the highest-paid TV actresses to continually setting new goals, she has come a long way since starting her acting career in 2002 with the Assamese film Kanyadaan. Her Bollywood debut came in 2004 with Yeh Lamhe Judaai Ke, directed by Birendra Nath Tiwari.

Desai rose to prominence after joining Colors TV’s long-standing soap opera Uttaran in 2009, where she played a parallel lead role alongside Tina Datta and Nandish Sandhu. The show’s immense success made Rashami a household name across India.

Beginning her television journey in 2006 with the show Ravan on Zee TV, Desai gained significant recognition with her breakthrough role in the daily soap Pari Hoon Main on Star One in 2008. In the series, she portrayed the characters of Nikki Shrivastav and Pari Rai Choudhary.

In an interview with Pinkvilla, she opened up about facing the casting couch when she started her career at the age of 16. Rashami shared, “I still remember being told that if I didn’t agree to casting couch, I wouldn’t get work. There was this person named Suraj, but I don’t know where he is now. When we first met, he asked about my statistics and at that time, I didn’t understand what it meant. I told him I didn’t know and he realised I was completely unaware. He was the first person who tried to take advantage of me and attempted to molest me in some way.”