Komal Mahuvakar aka Rupini has worked with some of the biggest stars in Indian cinema including Rajesh Khanna, Rishi Kapoor, Kamal Haasan, and Rajinikanth.
Komal Mahuvakar, popularly known by her stage name Rupini, was born in Mumbai in 1969. At the age of four, she started learning dancing from the legendary classical dancer Lachhu Maharaj and learnt all the forms of classical dances including Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi, Odissi and Kathak.
She started her acting career as a child artist in Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Mili in 1975. The legendary director cast her in two more films – Kotwal Saab and Khoobsurat. By 1980, while Komal was still a pre-teen, she took on leading roles, starting with Payal Ki Jhankaar. In the first part of the decade, Komal starred in successful films like Meri Adalat and worked alongside leading heroes such as Rishi Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, and Rajesh Khanna.
In 1987, she adopted the name Rupini, when she made her debut in Tamil and Telugu cinema. Over the next eight years, she appeared in a variety of films across Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, and Kannada, often sharing the screen with many top stars of the era. Some of her famous movies were Kamal Haasan’s Apoorva Sagodharargal and Michael Madana Kama Rajan, Rajinikanth’s Raja Chinna Roja, and Vijayakanth’s Captain Prabhakaran among others.
In 1995, Rupini married Mohan Kumar and decided to quit films to focus on her marriage and family based in Mumbai. The couple has a daughter named Anisha. A few years later, the former actress opened Universal Heart Hospital in Chembur in the Maharashtrian capital city to care for ailing patients.
In 2005, Rupini returned to acting after nearly a decade in the Sahara One TV show Woh Rehne Waali Mehlon Ki. She was last seen in the Tamil soap opera Chithi 2 on Sun TV in 2020. Rupini continues to live in Mumbai with her family and also shares photos and videos from her personal life on her Instagram.
