Gul Panag

Biography

Gulkirat Kaur "Gul" Panag (born 3 January 1979) is an Indian actress, voice actress, model and politician. She was crowned Femina Miss India Universe 1999 and represented India at Miss Universe 1999. She began her career in Hindi films with the 2003 film Dhoop directed by Nagesh Kukunoor and since then, she has starred in several films like Jurm along with the TV series Kashmeer. Her films include Dor, Dhoop, Manorama Six Feet Under, Hello, Straight, and Ab Tak Chhappan 2. She played a commoner, fighting hard to save her husband from going to the gallows, in the 2006 Nagesh Kukunoor film, Dor. In 2008, she acted in the films Hello and Summer 2007. In 2009, she appeared in the movie Straight. She featured in Rann in a role attempting to stop her boyfriend from doing the right thing. Panag appeared on the front page of Maxim with whom she did a photo shoot in September 2008. She debuted in Punjabi movies with Sarsa. She was the Aam Aadmi Party candidate from Chandigarh for 2014 Lok Sabha Elections.

== Early life == Panag started her education in Sangrur, in Punjab. Her father, Lt. Gen. Panag was in the army and the family moved to different places across India and abroad. As a result of this, she studied in 14 different schools including Kendriya Vidyalayas (Chandigarh, Mhow, Leh and Wellington, Tamil Nadu), The Lawrence School, Lovedale and the International School of Lusaka, Zambia. She did her Bachelors in Mathematics from Punjabi University, Patiala, and Masters in Political Science from Panjab University, Chandigarh. As a student, Panag was interested in sports and public speaking. She won numerous state and national level debate competitions, including two gold medals at the Annual National Inter University Debate competition.

== Career ==

=== Modeling === Panag won the Miss India title in 1999, and was crowned Miss Beautiful Smile at the same pageant. She participated in the Miss Universe 1999 pageant.

=== Brand endorsement === She has appeared in numerous advertisements on television and print media and is the brand ambassador for Tata Sky, along with Aamir Khan. Panag was the Twitter Face for the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week held in 2009, to cover the happenings/proceedings on the micro-blogging site.

=== Social activism ===

Gul Panag runs the Colonel Shamsher Singh Foundation, an NGO that works towards a variety of causes including gender equality, education and disaster management. She served on the advisory board of the Wockhardt Foundation. She also participated in the India Against Corruption movement. She ran at the Delhi Half Marathon in November 2010, but endured eve teasing (sexual harassment) from male runners at the event. She later remarked that the attitude of men in Delhi needed to change and that the city was unsafe for women.

=== Political career === Panag joined the Aam Aadmi Party in March 2014. She was the Aam Aadmi Party candidate from Chandigarh for 2014 Indian general election. She came on third position with 1,08,679 votes, while Kirron Kher won the election with 1,91,362 votes. Later she distanced herself from the party's mainstream political activities and resigned from the party in June 2021.