Think of Lisa Haydon and the first thing that strikes the mind is a bohemian Parisian single mother who played the perfect second fiddle to Rani in ‘Queen’. Known for her character of Vijayalakshmi, in the movie ‘Queen’, Lisa is a model turned actress who in little time has given ample evidence of her oodles of talent. At 5’9”, this dusky Indian beauty oozes a perfect charm and is charismatic and attractive. She has walked the ramp for Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week (WIFW) and HDIL-India Couture Week(HDIL-ICW). She is also the face of popular Indian cosmetic brand, Lakmé. Movies happened to this hippie-hearted style diva while sipping a coffee at a five star coffee shop. Yes, no matter how weird that may sound to be, it is absolutely true. Her debut was for Anil Kapoor’s production, ‘Aisha’, post which she has done a couple of films like, ‘Shaukeens’, ‘Rascals, ‘Queen’ and ‘Housefull 3’. Ask her how she feels when people call her a ‘hottie’ and she detests it. Lisa Haydon has more than once stated that there is more to her than her hot body and to-die-for looks. An emotionally overactive person, she feels it is downright lame to typecast a person based on his/her physical attributes.
Sneak Peek!
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Lisa Haydon was born as Elisabeth Marie Haydon on June 17, 1986 in Chennai, India. She has a mixed lineage – a deadly combination of an Indian Malayalee father, Venkat, and an Australian mother, Anna Haydon. She has seven siblings, including her sister Mallika Haydon, a well-known model. Lisa has spent most of her growing up years between Australia, India and United States before finally moving to India in 2007. A student of psychology, Lisa in her late teens aimed to become a yoga teacher. However, cash crunches led her to pursue modelling as a part time job to pay for her classes and rent. It was this part-time job that soon became the mainstream profession for this dusky beauty.
The Start!
No matter whether you believe it or not, destiny has its way of getting to you. Same happened with Lisa Haydon—she started with psychology and yoga and soon ended up pursuing modelling. Lisa had originally started modelling to fulfil her personal needs but no sooner found her real calling in it. Her first ever modelling assignment was for a stretch mark cream in Australia. Ever since then, she got so embroiled at the art of walking up the ramp that Lisa took it up professionally. Inspired by the success of her model sister, Mallika in India, she relocated to her home country to replicate her sister’s success and make her own little space.
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Lisa Haydon’s modelling career in India has been phenomenally successful. She has walked the ramp for Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week (WIFW) and HDIL-India Couture Week(HDIL-ICW). She is also the face of popular Indian cosmetic brand, Lakmé. She has also featured in commercials for Hyundai i20, Indigo Nation, Myntra.com and Blender’s Pride. That apart, she served as the cover girl for various magazines including Verve, Elle, Femina, Harper’s Bazaar, FHM and Adorn.
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Her Success Story
Lisa’s impeccable style and elegant persona gave her an edge over other models walking the ramp. She soon became the first and the obvious choice of all major fashion awards in the country. To name a few, she was presented the Best Model and the Most Stylish Persona in Cosmopolitan Fun and Fearless Awards in 2009, received DNA’s Most Stylish in 2009, and Marie Claire’s Best Model in 2010.
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Tryst in Films
If you thought the success in modelling was all what Lisa was fated for, delve a little further. The gorgeous lady was soon spotted by Anil Kapoor, the man himself, at a coffee shop. Her oozing charm and charismatic persona impressed him enough to offer her a role in his home-production, ‘Aisha’. In the film, she capped the role of Aarti Menon, a New-York returned, white-collared, corporate yuppie. Though the film fared averagely at the box office, it was enough to give Lisa the kind of exposure that she needed.
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Big Breakthrough!
Lisa’s big breakthrough in films came with the coming-of-age dramedy ‘Queen’ alongside Kangana Ranaut. She played the role of Vijayalakshmi, Kangana’s friend, confidante and partner-in-crime, while the latter was honeymooning in Paris all alone. She played a single mother who had a child out of wedlock. Interestingly, as much as Kangana was lauded for her acting expedition, Lisa too gained critical acclamation for bringing in the right amount of sassiness and warmth to her character. The genuine warmth, affection and friendliness that Vijayalakshmi showered on Rani (Kangana’s character) struck a chord with the audience. Post the tremendous success of ‘Queen’, it was only natural for Lisa to be offered a string of movies, given her fantabulous performance in the flick. 2014 saw her star opposite the Khiladi of Bollywood, Akshay Kumar in ‘The Shaukeen’. The film was a remake of the 1982 movie ‘Shaukeen’.
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Upcoming Projects!
Lisa Haydon has her hands full of work. She dons a cameo role in the most anticipated movie of the 2016 ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’ starring Aishwariya Rai Bachchan, Ranbir Kapoor, Anushka Sharma and Fawad Khan. The movie is slated for a pre-Diwali release on October 28, 2016. She is currently filming for Milan Luthria’s ‘Baadshaho’ which stars Ajay Devgan as its protagonist. She plays the second lead in the film. It is expected to hit the theatres on January 26, 2017.
Relationship Status
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Lisa Haydon dated Karan Bhojwani, son of socialite Devika and Suresh Bhojwani. She had been quoted as being ‘madly in love’ with Karan. The two even took to twitter to officially announce the confirmation of their commitment and their engagement. However, just when the wedding preparations had started, Lisa called off the nuptials. She stated the need to ‘figure things out’ before getting into the wedlock. Consequently, the love affair between the leggy lass and her DJ beau couldn’t last any further. Lisa was lucky to find true love the second time, in Dino Lalvani. He is the son of Pakistan-born British entrepreneur Gullu Lalvani. The couple was first seen together at UNICEF’s Halloween Ball at One Mayfair in London, with Swiss financier-businessman Nat Rothschild and his model fiancée, Loretta Basey. The two hit it off exceptionally well and were found to be comfortable with each other. On September 27, 2016, Lisa announced her marriage. The actress posted a cute picture kissing the love of her life and captioned it saying, ‘Gonna marry him’.
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Controversies
- Lisa Haydon slammed Kamaal R. Khan aka KRK for the latter’s infamous jibe on her in the social networking site, Twitter. In his tweet, KRK posted a picture of Lisa where she is seen hanging from a basketball ring along with an insulting caption. The dusky beauty didn’t take the comment too easily and whacked KRK with a fitting response, calling him ‘#LowLife’.
- As per some reports, it is stated that when Lisa Haydon accompanied her co-stars to promote her film, Housefull 3 in a famous comedy roast show, ‘Comedy Night Bachao’, a discord occurred. Apparently, everything was fine until a comedian on the show made a distasteful comment on Lisa Haydon calling her a ‘black African’. Akshay Kumar is stated to have lost his cool and tried to stop the comedian by shoving him off. Abhishek Bachchan later called the act a prank which was played by Akshay Kumar on the comedians and the show.
- At a press conference, Lisa Haydon’s comment of feminism being ‘an overused term’ and that ‘Women have been given these bodies to produce children’ invited a lot of flak from the industry and people. She later amended her words by saying that she believed in equality and that she hadn’t given a well-rounded answer which was further misconstrued.
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Some Little Known Facts
- If you have been floored by Lisa Haydon’s western moves in ‘Manali Trance’, wait till you know this. She is a trained Bharatnatyam dancer and has also trained with Shaimak Davar troupe for five years. Quite amazing isn’t it?
- Yoga aspirant, super model and now an actor – Lisa Haydon has more to kitty than just this. Yes, you read it right. She is an entrepreneur as well. She has an organic beauty brand called Naked which sells skin lotions online. Quite impressive, must say!
