ANGELINA JOLIE – HOLLYWOOD’S EXOTIC ACTRESS

Angelina Jolie (full name Angelina Jolie Voight) was born on 4 June, 1975 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She is a famous American actress and a former model. She is known for her exotic looks, her tumultuous off-screen life and her humanitarian work with refugees. Regarding her family, Angelina Jolie is the daughter of actors Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand and sister of James Haven. She is also niece of Chip Taylor and the god-daughter of Jacqueline Bisset and Maximilian Schell. Her grandparents were French-Canadian and her paternal-grandfather was from Czechoslovakia. Thus, she is of Czech and English descent on her father’s side and of French-Canadian and
Iroquois on her mother’s.

As a teenager , she dreamed of becoming a funeral director. She attended the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute from the age of 11, later attending Beverly Hills High School. Though Angelina Jolie enrolled at the film school at New York University after finishing “Gia”, she did not complete her studies. She has been long estranged from her father, blaming his infidelity for the break-up of the family , though a reconciliation was attempted by his appearing with her in “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider”. In 2004, Angelina Jolie indicated that she was no longer interested in pursuing a relationship with her father, but that she did not hate him because she realised that “…we only have so much energy in this life”. Soon afterwards, he claimed that she has “serious emotional problems” while she legally dropped Voight as her last name and took “Angelina Jolie” as new legal name.

Before Angelina Jolie began a career as an actress, she was a model. Her first starring role came in the 1995 film Hackers. In 1998 Angelina Jolie achieved a major critical success, starring in the TV film “Gia”, the true story of 1970-80s supermodel Gia Carangi, who died of AIDS. She won Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild and Golden Satmifie awards and was nominated for an Emmy. She had roles in several box-office flops until 1999, when she co-starred in “The Bone Collector” with Denzel Washington and won an Oscar for “Girl, Interrupted”. Beside the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, the latter movie also brought three Golden Globes. Her first healding blockbuster role came from “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider”.

Several of her subsequent films, such as “Life or Something Like It”, “Alexander” and “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” were box-office disappointments, although Jolie herself usually received good notices. She did provide the voice of Lola in the successful animated film “Shark Tale”. Jolie quickly became one of Hollywood’s most “in-demand” actresses. Following the success of “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” (2005), she was set to earn up to $15 million to star in the film “The Good Shepherd” (2006).

Apart from her acting and humanitarian endeavours, Jolie has worked as a professional model in London, New York and Los Angeles and appeared in numerous music videos, including those of Korn, Meat Loaf, Lenny Kravitz, and The Rolling Stones. As for her private life, after divorcing from actors Jonny Lee Miller and Billy Bob Thornton, Jolie has a wonderfull life with actor Brad Pitt, in a relationship that has captured worldwide media attention. Jolie and Pitt have three adopted children, Maddox, Pax and Zahara, and a biological child, Shiloh.

ANGELINA JOLIE DATES

• Jenny Shimizu (1994 – 1995)
• Jonny Lee Miller (1996 – 1999)
• Timothy Hutton (1998 – 1999)
• Billy Bob Thornton (2000 – 2003)
• Colin Farrel (2003 – 2004)
• Brad Pitt (2005 – present)

FILMOGRAPHY

• Wanted (2008) – Fox
• Kung Fu Panda (voice) (2008) -Master Tigress
• The Changeling (2008)
• Atlas Shrugged (2008) -Dagny Taggart
• Beowulf (2007) – Grendels Mother
• A Mighty Heart ( 2007) – Marianne Pearl
• The Good Shepherd (2006) – Catherine the Great
• Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005) – Jane Smith
• Alexander (2004) – Olympias
• Shark Tale (2004) (voice) – Lola
• Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004) – Capt. Franky Cook
• Taking Lives (2004) – Illeana Scott
• Beyond Borders (2003) – Sarah Jordan
• Lara Croft and the Cradle of Life: Tomb Raider 2 (2003) – Lara Croft
• Life or Something Like It (2002) – Lanie
• Original Sin (2001) – Julia Russell
• Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) – Lara Croft
• Gone in Sixty Seconds (2000) – Sara ‘Sway’ Wayland
• Girl, Interrupted (1999) – Lisa Rowe
• Bone Collector, The (1999) – Amelia Donaghy
• Pushing Tin (1999) – Mary Bell
• Playing by Heart (1998) – Joan
• Hell’s Kitchen (1998) – Gloria McNeary
• Gia (1998) (TV) – Gia Marie Carangi
• Playing God (1997) – Claire
• George Wallace (1997) (TV) – Cornelia Wallace
• True Women (1997) (TV) – Georgia Virginia Lawshe Woods
• Mojave Moon (1996) – Eleanor ‘Elie’ Rigby
• Foxfire (1996) – Margret ‘Legs’ Sadovsky
• Love Is All There Is (1996) – Gina Malacici
• Without Evidence (1995) – Jodie Swearingen
• Hackers (1995) – Kate Libby (‘Acid Burn’)
• Cyborg 2 (1993) – Casella ‘Cash’ Reese
• Lookin’ to Get Out (1982) – Tosh

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KATRINA KAIF – BEAUTY WITH BRAINS

Katrina Kaif is born on July 16, 1984 Katrina Kaif is one of eight siblings, all girls, from a mother who is a Caucasian of British Nationality, and a father who was formerly from Kashmir, India, but who has since acquired British citizenship. Katrina grew up in Hawaii, but was brought up in London, UK. She started modeling accidentally when she was in Hawaii at the tender age of 14, when she was approached for a jewelery campaign. Thereafter she continued modeling in London.

Continuing to model was the reason she got her break in a Bollywood movie “Boom” offered by none other than film-maker Kaizad Gustad. She was flooded with modeling assignments the minute she set her foot on Indian soil, especially with her innocent expressive face, hour-glass figure, and drop-dead gorgeous looks. Professionally she started off as a model with photographer Atul Kasbekar, and upon being accepted, she received offers from LG, Cola, Fevicol, Lakme, & Veet. Katrina has also been the stunning face of Estelle jewelery, Lakme, Pantene, Veet, Kodak cameras, L’Oreal, Samsung, LG etc. It was the Lakme commercial that got her noticed. She retained Matrix as her Manager to accept work on her behalf and at the price she deserved. Moving to different culture and country was not much of a culture shock for her, as she states that no matter where you come from, the bottom line is that everyone wants to be loved, respected, and cared for.

Unlike other artistes from foreign lands, Katrina did not experience any difficulties in getting a visa nor of getting it extended in India. Although linguistically challenged, Katrina puts on a bold face and states that other Bollywood artistes like Sridevi, who did not know Hindi, did get offers from Bollywood film-makers, and she is no different. She is taking Hindi and dancing lessons to fit in with the Bollywood culture. She likes to display a picture of her learning Kathak dancing where she used to dance 7 hours a day non-stop. Despite of her soft gorgeous looks, she is not easily intimidated, but admits that she is very emotional, almost an incurable romantic, wears comfortable non-revealing clothes when at home, hates to do her hair, and above all dislikes make-up. Admitting to being lonely in the beginning, but now has several nice friends who she can hang out with.

Although her first movie “Boom” was panned by the critics and shunned by the audiences, two other Telegu movies “Malliswari” and “Pidugu” did get her noticed. She grossed Rs.70 lakhs for Malliswari – making her top the list of the highest paid actresses during a South Indian movie debut. Not done with South Indian movies, she has been signed in a Tamil movie “Bheema” opposite National Award Winner Vikram. She has received decent reviews for her part in “Maine Pyar Kyon Kiya”, as well as a brief appearance in “Sarrkar”. Katrina has now made Bombay her base, and doesn’t mind singing and dancing around trees while she’s at it, and is determined to make it big in Bollywood.

FILMOGRAPHY

• Raajneeti (2010) – Indu Pratap
• De Dana Dan (2009) – Anjali Kakkad
• Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani (2009) – Jenny
• Blue (2009) – Nikki
• New York (2009) – Maya
• Yuvvraaj (2008) – Anushka
• Hello (2008) – Special appearance
• Singh Is Kinng (2008) – Sonia
• Race (2008) – Sophia
• Welcome (2007) – Sanjana
• Partner (2007) – Priya Jai Singh
• Apne (2007) – Nandini N. Sarabhai
• Namastey London (2007) – Jasmeet Singh
• Hum Ko Deewana Kar Gaye (2006) – Jia A. Yashvardhan
• Allari Pidugu (2005)
• Maine Pyar Kyun Kiya? (2005) – Sonia
• Sarkar (2005) – Pooja
• Malliswari (2004) – Malliswari
• Boom (2003) – Rina Kaif aka Popdi Chinchpokli
  

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MEGAN FOX – THE TRANSFORMERS GIRL

Megan Fox is born on May 16, 1986 in Rockwood, Tennessee. She is a slender, olive-skinned actress whose elegant beauty is somewhat offset by a collection of vivid tattoos (including a portrait of Marilyn Monroe on her right forearm and the King Lear quote “We all laugh at gilded butterflies” on her right shoulder blade), Megan Fox knew she wanted to be an actress from age three, and never once considered another line of work. A native of Memphis, TN, Fox began taking dance lessons when she was five years old and continued perfecting her graceful movements even after her family relocated to Florida five years later. At 13, the aspiring starlet enrolled in modeling and acting classes. It didn’t take long for all of Fox’s hard work to pay off, with a role in the 2001 Olsen twins comedy Holiday in the Sun marking the ambitious actress’ official screen debut.

Over the course of the next few years, Fox became a frequent fixture on television thanks to roles on What I Like About You, Two and a Half Men, and Hope & Faith. In 2004, Fox would torment a fledgling Lindsay Lohan in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, though it was Fox’s performance as a human caught in the middle of an epic robot battle that would truly prove her calling card to Hollywood. Cast as the love interest of Shia LaBeouf in Michael Bay’s 2007 blockbuster Transformers, Fox turned more than a few heads while fighting for the future of the human race. In 2008, Fox could be spotted opposite Kirsten Dunst, Simon Pegg, Jeff Bridges, and Gillian Anderson in the Robert B Weide directed comedy “How to Lose Friends and Alienate People”.

Since adulthood she’s been a favorite of cheesecake magazines, and the success of Transformers cemented her status as a pin-up girl of the tomboy variety. FHM magazine named her the sexiest woman in the world in its 2008 poll. She also starred as a killer cheerleader in the 2009 comic horror film Jennifer’s Body. After calling off their first engagement, Fox and longtime beau Brian Austin Green, 36, get engaged a second time and make it official while vacationing on the big island of Hawaii in June. “Yes they are married,” a rep for the 24-year-old actress confirms to PEOPLE.

FILMOGRAPHY

• Crimes of Fashion
• The Help (TV)
• Hope & Faith – Season 02
• Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen
• Hope & Faith – Season 03
• Transformers
• How to Lose Friends and Alienate People
• Jennifer’s Body
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
• Fathom
• Jonah Hex
  

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MARILYN MONROE – HOLLYWOOD’S MOST FAMOUS BLONDE

Marilyn Monroe, whose name was Norma Jean Baker in childhood, was born to Gladys Mortenson, a film technician, whose husband, Edward Mortenson, deserted the family. Norma Jean’s natural father may have actually been another studio employee, C. Stanley Gifford. Gladys’ mental illness surfaced shortly after her daughter’s birth, and she was institutionalized much of Norma Jean’s growing years. Norma Jean was placed in a series of twelve foster homes, and once in an orphanage. She attended Van Nuys High School in Los Angeles, California.

At sixteen, Norma Jean escaped the foster system by marrying 20-year-old James Dougherty. A year later, in 1943, he joined the U.S. Merchant Marine. Norma Jean took a job in an airline plant, part of the World War II factory effort, and worked first as a parachute inspector, then as a paint sprayer. When the government came through to take promotional photographs of the women working in the plant, the brunette Norma Jean learned that she photographed well, took a modeling course, and began working part-time as a photographer’s model.

Success as a photographer’s model led her to her dream of becoming an actress. In 1946, she divorced Dougherty and bleached her hair to become a blond. She signed a one-year, $125/month contract with Twentieth Century-Fox on August 26, 1946. Ben Lyon, casting director, suggested that she take the name Marilyn, and she added her grandmother’s last name, Monroe.

Marilyn Monroe played one bit part that year, all of which ended up on the cutting room floor. The next year, she signed another one-year contract, this time with Columbia. The results weren’t any better. In 1950, Marilyn Monroe posed for full-length nude shots, which the photographer Tom Kelley sold for a calendar. That same year, she appeared in a bit part in The Asphalt Jungle, and though her name wasn’t even mentioned in the credits, her appearance generated a huge amount of fan mail. Her reputation as a blond bombshell had begun to be established.

So Twentieth Century-Fox signed Marilyn Monroe to a new contract — this time, for seven years. She appeared in All About Eve. In 1946, she had her first starring role, in Niagara. In Gentlemen Prefer Blondes she sang, and for the first time, she had her own dressing room. In January, 1954, Marilyn Monroe married the famous baseball player, Joe Di Maggio. The marriage was short-lived; they divorced in October. For the 1955 movie The Seven Year Itch, Marilyn Monroe appeared in the famous photographic stunt, in a white halter dress, with her skirt blown up by a draft from a sidewalk grate, leaning down to catch her dress so that her cleavage showed. The photograph was used to advertise the film, and has become one of the iconic images of Marilyn Monroe.

But after filming The Seven Year Itch, in which she plays a prototypical “dumb blond,” Marilyn Monroe decided to work more seriously on her acting skills, to the skepticism of many critics. She broke her movie contract, and moved to New York to study at the Actors Studio with Lee Strasberg for a year. In 1955, she founded her own company with Milton Greene, Marilyn Monroe Productions, and signed a new contract with Twentieth Century-Fox. She made the 1956 movie Bus Stop which wowed the critics, but she’d begun to lose herself to self-doubt, depression, drugs, and alcohol. Marilyn Monroe, whose mother and maternal grandparents had all struggled with mental illness and institutionalization, began taking sleeping pills for her insomnia. She regularly consulted psychiatrists. She drank heavily, and began a habit of arriving late to work, and sometimes not being able to work at all.

She married Arthur Miller, the playwright, shortly after Bus Stop was released, and for the marriage converted to Judaism. She lived quietly for two years with her new husband. During that time, Miller was fighting his conviction for contempt-of-Congress for refusing to answer two questions before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). The marriage, and several miscarriages, added to her self-doubt and depression, and to her use of drugs and alcohol. Marilyn Monroe’s next movie, The Prince and the Showgirl, brought mixed reviews. That was followed by Let’s Make Love, and an unhappy romantic liaison with co-star Yves Montand.

The Misfits was written for Marilyn Monroe by her husband, Arthur Miller. She performed well in the final product, though during its filming, she was often under the influence of alcohol and pills, and she was notoriously late to the set. Marilyn was affected by the death, two months after the film was completed, by co-star Clark Gable. In early 1961, Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller divorced. During this period, she was also bothered by many rumors of affairs, including with the President, John F. Kennedy, and his brother, Robert F. Kennedy. Filming her next project, ironically titled Something’s Got to Give, Marilyn’s lateness and addictions led to her dismissal after a month. She was briefly committed to a mental hospital. She was approved to return to the film, but never resumed filming.

Two months later, in her home in Los Angeles, Marilyn Monroe was found by her housekeeper, dead, with an empty bottle of sleeping pills next to her body. The coroner found the death was caused by an overdose of barbiturates, and pronounced it a possible suicide. No evidence of foul play was presented to the coroner. Marilyn Monroe’s funeral was planned by Joe Di Maggio; Lee Strasburg delivered the eulogy.

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HAN HAN – CHINA’S MOST WIDELY READ BLOGGER

Han Han born 23 September 1982 is a Chinese professional rally driver, best-selling author, singer, and China’s most popular blogger indeed, possibly the most popular blogger in the world. He is also involved in music production.

Han’s first essay, Unhappy Days, was published when he was attending junior middle school. He was admitted to Shanghai’s Song Jiang No. 2 High School based on his sporting achievements. During his first year of high school (1999), Han won first prize in China’s New Concept Writing Competition with his essay, Seeing Ourselves in a Cup, on the Chinese national character. Failing seven subjects at the year-end examination, Han was retained for a year in school. This incident was reported in the media and ignited a heated debate on China’s “quality education” policy, whether holistic or specialised learning should be implemented in schools, and other educational issues. Following another seven subject failure in the senior middle school second year examinations, Han quit school.After dropping out of school, Han worked on a series of essays – One Degree Below Freezing, Press Release 2003, And I Drift, and Miscellaneous Essays. His essays were accepted into various publications. Han’s first novel, Triple Door, on life as a third-year junior school student in Shanghai, raised his prominence in China outside Shanghai. With over two million copies printed, this novel is China’s bestselling literary work in the last 20 years. Other novels – Like a Speeding Youth, Riot in Chang’an City, A Fortress, Glory Days, His Kingdom were also published during this time.Fueled by his love of racing, Han became a professional rally driver and wrote less frequently. However, he continued to blog on current affairs, with some articles attracting a large number of readers and sparking intense debates. Han’s blog has registered well over 300 million hits, the largest online following of a personal blog in China. Han is also involved in music production. His debut album, R-18 restricted to 18 and above, was released in September 2006, with all lyrics self-composed.

On 19 April 2009, Han launched his online bookstore, Han Han’s Bookstore, on the Taobao online shopping marketplace. The bookstore site stated that it would sell only Han’s original autographed books. As the number of sales transactions on Han Han’s Bookstore was unusually large, the online system erroneously classified these as false transactions and attempts at credit fraud, leading Taobao to investigate the issue.

Due to certain publishing and circulation restrictions in China, Han’s magazine, which was originally planned for publication in August 2009, remained unpublished as of 20 September 2009. Despite this, Han promised not to disappoint his readers and expressed hope that the magazine could be published sometime around October 2009. As of February 2010 the magazine has not been published reportedly because of an article that details the blacklisting of actors.

After Han turned professional as a rally driver, there were rumours that he had encountered financial difficulties. Han himself admitted that writers and race car drivers in China earned less compared to those in other professions. Furthermore, his only income source was from book royalties as he was not involved in other revenue generating activities. However, he continued to race as it gave him a sense of achievement. Winning prizes also enabled him to prove to himself that he was an all-rounded learner.

The following highlights some of Han’s achievements in his racing career:

• 2003: Raced for Beijing Extreme Speed Racing Team in the China Rally. Achieved 6th in the Shanghai race, 8th in the Changchun race and 6th in the Beijing race, all in the Group N category.
• 2004: Group N 7th position for the Shanghai race, 4th position for the all-China race. 2004 June: Joined Yunnan Red River Racing Team.
• 2004: Took 1st position in the Formula BMW Asia Qualifying Race. Received scholarship money of USD 50,000.
• Entered the annual Formula BMW race, achieved 7th in the Bahrain race and 1st in the Rookie Cup.
• 8th in the Malaysia Race, 2nd in the Rookie Cup.
• 7th in the Shanghai race, 2nd in the Rookie Cup.
• 6th in the Japan race, 1st in the Rookie Cup.
• 2005: Joined Shanghai Volkswagen 333 Racing Team.
• 2005: Participated in the China Rally 1.6L Category. Achieved 4th in the Shanghai race, 4th in the Guizhou race, 4th in the Liupanshui race, and 4th in the Kunming race.
• 2005: Participated in the China Circuit Championship Production Car 1600cc Category. Took 1st position in the Zhuhai race, 2nd position in the Shanghai race, 3rd position in the Beijing race and 1st position in the Shaoguan race. Won overall 2nd prize for 2005.
• 2006: Raced for Shanghai Volkswagen 333 Racing Team. Won 3rd prize in the Shanghai race of the China Circuit Championship 1600cc Category, and 2nd prize in the China Rally.
• 2007: Raced for Shanghai Volkswagen 333 Racing Team, obtained 1st prize in the China Circuit Championship 1600cc Category.

In September 2009, Han travelled to Australia to participate in the World Rally Championship (WRC). Following this, he wrote a blog post entitled Report on supervision and guidance work in preparation for the WRC in Australia, using irony to express dissatisfaction with China’s standards of race management, economic conditions, political consciousness of the population, etc. in comparison with Australia.

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LUIZ INACIO LULA DA SILVA – THE 35th PRESIDENT OF BRAZIL

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, born on October 27, 1945, commonly referred to simply as “Lula”, is a Brazilian politician. He was elected President of Brazil in 2002, and re-elected in 2006. He is a liberal politician who often adopts centrist positions. He has been a very effective president, avoiding scandals and allowing Brazilian industry to prosper while taking steps towards combating Brazil’s legendary poverty.

EARLY LIFE

Lula was born in October, 1945 to poor parents in the town of Caetes, Pernambuco, but soon moved to a coastal city in São Paulo province. There was little time or money for young Lula to get an education, and he was working in the streets as a shoeshine boy and street vendor before he was in his teens. He was a hard worker and soon found full-time work in Sao Paulo’s booming automotive industry.

UNIONIZER

In the 1960’s and 1970’s, there was a lot of work in the industrial factories of Sao Paulo, but little in the way of worker’s rights. Lula became very involved in the movement to unionize the workers, and due to his natural leadership he rose quickly in the ranks of the union leadership. In the 1970’s he led several strikes, and was jailed for a while. In 1978 he was elected head of a steel-workers union. He became convinced that the true path to fair treatment for workers was not through unions and strikes, but through political power.

WORKER’S PARTY

In 1980, Lula became one of the founding members of the Partido dos Trabalhadores (“Party of the Workers,” known in Brazil by its initials PT). Lula was its first president. Brazil was at the time under a right-wing military dictatorship and organizing unions and political parties could have been very dangerous for Lula and his companions. The Party was not formally recognized by the Brazilian Electoral court until 1982. The PT was very popular with the working class and its growing political clout helped restore democracy to Brazil in the late 1980’s.

LULA’S EARLY POLITICAL CAREER

Lula first ran for office in 1982, for a seat in the São Paulo Province legislature, but lost. In 1986 he was elected to Congress, and by the time a new constitution was needed in the late 1980’s, the PT was powerful enough to demand a seat at the table to influence its provisions. Although the PT helped create the constitution, they refused to ratify the final result, as they felt it did not do enough to ensure workers’ rights. Lula ran for president in 1989, 1994 and 1998. He lost all three elections, although many believe that he only lost due to election fraud.

PRESIDENCY

Lula continued to run for president and finally won in 2002. Although many feared that Lula would immediately implement radical socialistic reforms and perhaps even default on some of Brazil’s debt, he has proven to be a progressive moderate, preferring slow but steady social change. He quickly identified some very real and serious problems in his country and attacked them directly and effectively. One example is his campaign against malnutrition. Under this program, the poorest Brazilian families get food aid, but only if their children stay in school. He has also efficiently managed the Brazilian economy, managing steady growth without making any drastic reforms, while still paying off foreign debts and funding badly-needed social programs.

Internationally, he has not become the ranting demagogue that many feared, instead perfecting the role of respected statesman. He has become a very important figure in Latin American politics, as he has taken great pains to be friendly with other nations. Lula’s Brazil is a leader in Latin American diplomacy: for example, Lula has sent a peacekeeping, humanitarian mission to Haiti on his own initiative.

He is a very forward-thinking leader, and under his administration Brazil has become a leader in the worldwide search for biofuels and clean energy. In December of 2008, Newsweek magazine named him the 18th most influential person in the world.

Lula will leave office in 2011 and has already announced that he will not seek to change the constitution to allow him to run for a third term as many other South American politicians have done.

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LAXMI NIWAS MITTAL – THE STEEL TYCOON

Lakshmi Mittal has become something of a cult figure in the global steel industry. His company Mittal Steel is the largest steel maker in the world. After the recent merger between Mittal Steel and Arcelor which raged a big debate throughout the Europe, Laxmi Mittal current controls 10% of the total steel production and the combined entity that has come into force post-merger is three times the size of its nearest competitors.

Lakshmi Niwas Mittal was born on June 15, 1950 at Sadulpur, in Churu district of Rajasthan, in a poor family. The extended family of 20 lived on bare concrete floors, slept on rope beds and cooked on an open fire in the brickyard in a house built by his grandfather. Laxmi Mittal belongs to Marwari Aggarwal caste and his grandfather worked for the Tarachand Ghanshyam Das firm, one of the leading Marwari industrial firms of pre-independence India.

The family later on moved to Kolkata where his father Mohan Mittal became a partner in a steel company. Lakshmi Mittal graduated from St. Xaviers in Kolkata with a commerce degree in 1969. He began his career working in the family’s steelmaking business in India and in 1976, Lakshmi Mittal founded Mittal Steel Company. He split from his father and two younger brothers in 1994 and took the international arm, with interests in Indonesia and Trinidad and Tobago, while the rest of the family kept the domestic Indian business. In the last few years Mittal Steel has made a number of acquisitions, buying up a network of steel producers in former communist countries including Kazakhstan, Romania and Ukraine, and pushing into the U.S. in 2004 with the $4.5 billion purchase of International Steel Group. Today, Mittal Steel is the only truly global steel producer in the world with operations on 14 countries, spanning 4 continents.

Lakshmi Mittal is also known for his opulence. In 2003, he acquired the Kensington mansion, said to be the world’s most expensive home, from Formula One racing’s Bernie Ecclestone for £70 million ($128 million). His daughter Vanisha’s $50 million wedding bash is touted as the most expensive wedding of the 20th century. In March 2006, Lakshmi Mittal was listed as the third wealthiest person in the world after Bill Gates and Warren Buffet by Forbes Magazine.

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