Manisha Koirala is a Nepalese actress known for her work in Hindi and Tamil films.^[1] Koirala's acting debut was in the Nepali film Pheri Bhetaula (1989).^[2] Two years later, she made her Bollywood debut in Subhash Ghai's Saudagar, which was a commercial success.^[3][4] However, she followed this by appearing in a series of films which performed poorly at the box office, including First Love Letter (1991), Anmol (1993), and Dhanwan (1993).^[3] Koirala's career had a turnaround when she starred as the daughter of a freedom fighter in Vidhu Vinod Chopra's 1942: A Love Story (1994).^[3][5][6][7] Her performance was critically acclaimed and she earned a nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Actress.^[3][5][8] The following year, Koirala received the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress, and the Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Tamil for playing a Muslim married to a Hindu during the 1992–1993 Bombay riots in the Mani Ratnam-directed Tamil drama Bombay (1995).^{[3][8][9][10]}

For playing the daughter of a mute and deaf couple in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Khamoshi: The Musical (1996), Koirala garnered a second consecutive Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress.^[3][9][11] She followed this with leading roles in Agni Sakshi (1996) and Gupt: The Hidden Truth (1997), which were among the highest-grossing Indian films of their respective years.^[12][13] She played a terrorist opposite Shah Rukh Khan in Dil Se.. (1998), the first Indian film to reach the top ten in the United Kingdom box office.^[14] However, Koirala's roles in films which performed poorly at the box office, such as Dil Ke Jharokhe Mein (1997), and Achanak (1998), led to a decline in her film career.^[3][11] She made her television debut in 2000 as the co-host of the game show Sawaal Dus Crore Ka with Anupam Kher. The show's poor ratings led to both Kher and Koirala being fired.^[15] For her role as a gangster's girlfriend in Ram Gopal Varma's 2002 crime drama Company, she received her third Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress.^[16][17][a] Koirala also appeared in the controversial film Ek Chhotisi Love Story in which she played a woman secretly spied upon by a teenage voyeur.^[18] The following year, her portrayal of Bengali writer Sushmita Banerjee in the drama Escape from Taliban garnered her the Bengal Film Journalists' Association Award for Best Actress (Hindi).^[19][20][21]

Koirala's career continued to decline during mid 2000s, as she appeared in less mainstream films.^[22] In 2004, she made her debut as a producer with the film Paisa Vasool,^[23] which performed poorly at the box office.^[24] The following year, she portrayed Mughal princess Jahan Ara in the historical drama Taj Mahal: An Eternal Love Story.^[25] In 2008, Koirala starred in Rituparno Ghosh's Khela, where she played a woman in a troubled marriage.^[26] Two years later, she appeared as an adulterous wife in the Malayalam drama Elektra.^[27] The following year, she played a Kashmiri Muslim attempting to restore a childhood friendship in Onir's anthology film I Am (2011).^[28] In 2012, she appeared in Ram Gopal Varma's horror sequel Bhoot Returns as the mother of a possessed daughter.^[29] Later that year, she took a break from acting after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer. After six months of treatment, Koirala recovered from the condition.^[30][31] Three years later, she returned to acting with the psychological thriller Chehere: A Modern Day Classic (2015).^[32]

• Manisha Koirala at IMDb