Yukta Mookhey

Mookhey was born in Bangalore in a Sindhi family[6] and was raised in Dubai until Mookhey was seven years of age.[7] Her family moved back to Mumbai in June 1986. Her mother Aroona used to run a grooming saloon in Santa Cruz, Mumbai and her father, Inderlal Mookhey was a former Managing Director of a clothing company.[8] After school, she studied zoology at the V. G. Vaze College in Mumbai. She has a diploma in computer sciences from Aptech and has studied Hindustani classical music for three years.[1]

After Mookhey's tenure as Miss World, she involved herself in various social and charitable causes.[18] She has worked for the people affected by HIV/AIDS, breast cancer and thalassemia.[19] Mookhey has pledged to donate her organs. In connection with this, she stated, “This step will benefit someone, once I leave this world”.[19] She also works as an educationist and provides motivational counseling in various platforms.[20] She partnered with an NGO to guide young girls from the slums, nudging them towards self-contemplation, understanding their needs and help them to become aware of their bodies, through counseling.[21]

She has voiced against illegal child labour carried out in India's firecracker industries, which is an offense under the Indian law.[22] She has also aided the people with hearing impairment, from marginalized and low-income segment of the society. She expressed - “I have spent my time learning the Indian sign language because I feel that hearing impaired people have so much latent creativity and are hampered only by their inability to communicate. I would like to help them by drawing attention to this issue.”[23]

Mookhey at the 2013 Global Peace concert, in Mumbai's Andheri Sports Complex, on Martyrs' Day (30 January)

Mookhey is an environmental activist, and has participated in various clean drives and social movements to prevent deforestation.[24] In 2018, she joined a campaign to prevent illegal tree cutting talking place at the Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary, to pave way for road and metro constructions.[25] During the movement, she stated - “I don't see any reason behind constructing road and metro from the sanctuary. The metro can be constructed underground and the road can be made elsewhere. Humans are not capable of making of what ‘Mother Earth’ can do. So we are just asking to stop the works and also stop cutting the trees.”[25] She also consigned a letter to the Pune Municipal Corporation's Heritage Cell, to include the bird sanctuary in the list of national heritage sites.[26]

She supports the Swachh Kalyani Nagar initiative in Pune, and had campaigned the households to process their waste effectively through segregation and recycling, ensuring minimum to zero garbage generation from individual societies.[21]

On 7 September 2008, Mookhey got engaged to Prince Tuli, a New York-based businessman and financial consultant at a ceremony held at the Grand Maratha in Mumbai.[27] The marriage was held on 2 November 2008 in a traditional Sikh ceremony at a Nagpur Gurudwara followed by a reception.[28] They have one son together.

Her brother Kanwal Mookhey is a businessman and is married to Indian television actress Karishma Randhawa.[29]

In July 2013, Mookhey accused her husband and in-laws of subjecting her to domestic violence and harassment,[30] and a FIR was registered under Section 498A (cruelty and harassment) and Section 377 (unnatural sex) of the Indian Penal Code.[31] She also accused Tuli under IPC section 377 (unnatural sex).[32] In June 2014, the couple obtained a consensual divorce.[33][34]

Mookhey entered the film industry in 2001 through the Tamil movie Poovellam Un Vasam, where she appeared in a song titled "Yukta Mookhey". She made her Hindi film debut with Pyaasa in 2002 starring with Aftab Shivdasani. The film proved to be a flop at the box office. Mookhey was cast in Market but had to drop out due to an injury. In 2003, she signed Kab Kyon Kahan and Hum Teeno, but both films where later shelved. She was later signed up in the 2004 release Insaaf: The Justice, but had to drop the project. In 2005, she acted in two films Memsahab and Love in Japan and in 2006, she appeared in the music video Kathputali.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Yukta Mookhey.

• Yukta Mookhey at IMDb