Smriti Zubin Irani

Smriti Zubin Irani (born 23 March 1977) is an Indian actress and politician, popularly known from the famous Hindi television soap opera, Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, in which she used to play the main character of Tulsi Virani.

Her character "Tulsi" was of the ideal wife, mother, and family member. The huge initial success and the subsequent continued patronage of the largely female audience of the show has been instrumental in changing the fortunes of the production house Balaji Telefilms and in creating a successful genre of tearjerker family dramas, which still continues in the Indian TV industry.

In 2003, she joined the Bharatiya Janata Party which was quick to give her a ticket to fight the Lok Sabha elections from Delhi's Chandni Chowk constituency. Although she suffered a defeat in the elections, this five consecutive best actress award winner continued with the BJP, while most other actors who had joined the party during the time deserted the party. Her commitment and hard work made the party realize her true potential and it made her a member of the National Executive (the highest decision making body of the Party) as also Secretary BJP Maharashtra and a member of the Maharashtra Executive. Smriti Irani while campaigning for the BJP has traveled the length and breath of India and interacted with various people understanding India’s diverse culture. She also runs her own “NGO” under the name of People for Change, which is providing drinking water to the poor in India’s remote areas.

Today Smriti Irani has also turned a producer with her own entertainment company Ugraya Entertainment. Its first production Thodi Si Zameen Thoda Sa Aasmaan (A little bit of land a little bit of sky) was in collaboration with Balaji Telefilms, after which her company entered into a strategic alliance with the Aditya Birla Group for producing software for television with it’s first production being Virrudh (Opposite/Against), a daily soap for Sony TV. Besides producing television drama-series, Smriti's production house also has produced two stage presentations Kuch Tum Kaho, Kuch Hum Kahein (Something you say, somethings I will say), a social comedy and Maniben.Com, a comedy.

On April 2007, Smriti decided to quit Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi due to a fall-out between her and her producer, Ekta Kapoor. Smriti's last episode was on 6 June 2007 where she dies in a truck accident.