In the early 1990s, when most newcomers were simply trying to survive in Bollywood, Niki Aneja was an anomaly. She had a face that drew comparisons to Madhuri Dixit and the kind of screen presence that made Mukul Anand pause and tell her, “You are very expressive, you should not sell products, you should sell characters.” Nicky did something few would dare even today, she spoke up, stirred controversy and then stepped away from films. Her stint in Hindi cinema was brief. But the choices she made at 19 would shape the rest of her career — one that later flourished on television.
The ‘Madhuri’ label and the rebellious start
Niki Aneja’s entry into showbiz was an act of rebellion. She wanted to go to Houston to train as a pilot, her father said no. To fund her own dreams, she secretly shot a portfolio at her cousin Parmeet Sethi’s house, wearing Archana Puran Singh’s clothes.
The gamble paid off almost instantly.
During the shoot, celebrity makeup artist Mickey Contractor happened to notice her and remarked that she resembled Madhuri Dixit.
“Right from the beginning of the first shot, there was this Madhuri Dixit ka label,” Niki tells Sidharth Kanan. It was a label that would follow her for years, one she wore lightly, neither rejecting it nor leaning on it.
Soon after, a jewellery brand signed her as its face. While still a college student, she was also selected to represent Mithibai at an international student pageant in Seoul, where she finished as runner-up and was named a peace ambassador.
Not long after returning from Seoul, Niki Aneja received a call from producer Pahlaj Nihalani for a film meeting. Her father said no again. “Yeh industry tumhare liye nahi hai,” he told Niki.
That meeting led to her debut opposite Anil Kapoor in the 1994 film Mr Azaad.
“The minute he said Anil Kapoor is my hero, I was like — ok.”
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Felt bullied on the sets of Mr. Azad
While filming Mr. Azaad, Niki Aneja found herself objectified and pressured into social “obligations” that had nothing to do with acting.
“I felt bullied. I was told I had to go for dinners with distributors at 11 PM. I actually went and asked Pehlaji why he was taking me to these dinners and why I was being called there. He said, ‘You don’t want to sell the film’? So I asked him just one question — if you have signed Anil Kapoor and still can’t sell the film, then what’s the point?”
The pushback made her “infamous” on the sets. She was labeled “difficult,” and on-set direction dried up.
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At just 19, she did something even more audacious, she appeared on a movie magazine cover with the headline, “Pehlaji: Not a maker, but a saboteur.”
The decision did not help her career. But for Aneja, it was about something else entirely: self-respect.
“I wanted to wake up and respect the person I saw in the mirror,” she says. “Before the industry could throw me out, I decided to leave with my izzat (dignity) intact.”
The Debt, the tragedy, and walking away from Yes Boss
Niki Aneja had already signed Yes Boss to play the lead (a role eventually played by Juhi Chawla) when tragedy struck. Her father passed away, leaving behind a mountain of debt the family knew nothing about.
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Although she had already shot five days for Yes Boss, she decided to step away from films entirely and returned the Rs 1.5 lakh advance.
“I was mentally and physically drained. I told Ratan ji I couldn’t honour the work in that state,” she explains.
With debts to repay and a family to support, Niki Aneja turned to television. “I decided that instead of being a small fish in the ocean of films, I would become a big fish in the pond of television.”
The gamble paid off.
Within a few years, Niki Aneja was simultaneously the lead actress in six to seven shows, Daastan, Andaz, Baat Ban Jaaye, Andhi Jazbaaton Ki, Seher, Sea Hawks, working with directors like Anubhav Sinha and establishing herself as one of television’s most bankable faces.
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She was also anchoring Shah Rukh Khan Juhi Chawla’s stage shows, produced by the Muranis. “Meri popularity also used to fill the seats,” she says.
She cleared all the debts, got her sister married.
Accident on the sets of Gharwali Uparwali
Just as her television career was peaking, another life-altering moment happened. While shooting the sitcom Gharwali Uparwali, Niki Aneja was severely injured when a car driven by a junior artiste ran over her during a scene.
The driver, she later learned, had been hired without knowing how to drive.
She suffered serious injuries and spent over a month in hospital. All five of her shows went off air during that time.
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“I was very badly injured as the driver banged me and drove the car over me. I had a three-liter hematoma. I was delirious in the hospital,” she recounts.
When Shah Rukh visited Niki Aneja at the hospital
One night, she woke up to find Shah Rukh Khan sitting by her bed. “I thought I am on too much medication and I am imagining Shah Rukh Khan,” she says.
Niki adds, “Shah Rukh held my hand and said ‘Niki, it’s Shah. I am so sorry. It’s 12 in the night but because there was paparazzi outside, I was waiting for them to leave. I can only come in the night.’ He then started stroking my hair and asked me how I was, if I wanted anything. I asked him ‘What are you doing here?’ He said ‘Answer one question, were you hit by a red Maruti van? I said yes but why are you asking that?”
Shah Rukh then recalled that he had spotted the same van on that day in Film City and saw that the production crew of Niki’s show was teaching one particular guy how to drive the vehicle.
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“He told me to sue the production house. His gesture earned my lifelong respect.”
She did. The settlement covered her hospital bills, but five shows off air could not be compensated.
The Sabbatical and Astitva…Ek Prem Kahani
Following the accident, Niki Aneja married Sonny Walia in February 2002 and moved to the UK.
Back in Mumbai briefly to ship her belongings, Niki received a call from director Ajay Sinha. He narrated a role — Dr. Simran in Astitva…Ek Prem Kahani on Zee TV. The character was so compelling that she agreed to travel back and forth between the UK and India for the show’s entire run, from 2002 to 2006. Sonny shifted to India during the shooting schedule to be with her.
Astitva made Dr. Simran Mathur a household name.
When twins Sean and Sabrina arrived, she made another deliberate choice and took a decade-long sabbatical to raise her children in England. “It was worth it,” she says.
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Comeback
In 2017, Niki Aneja returned to television with Dil Sambhal Jaa Zara on Star Plus, playing the striking Laila Raichand.
She played the morally complex principal Maya in ALTBalaji’s youth drama Puncch Beat (2018–2021), which introduced her to a new audience. On ZEE5, she appeared in all three seasons of Never Kiss Your Best Friend as Harpreet Brar. She was also seen in Netflix projects like Guilty (2020), Tara vs Bilal (2022) and Double XL (2022). In the thriller Neeyat (2023), she played AK’s therapist, Zara. She also featured in Cloud 9, the UK’s first British Asian daily soap.
