From competing with Aishwarya Rai to debuting with Akshay Kumar to becoming a monk, story of a once promising actress

Remember former actress Barkha Madan? Back in 1994, she was competing with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Sushmita Sen for the Miss India pageant, made her Bollywood debut with Akshay Kumar in the 1996 hit Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi and was then seen in Ajay Devgn’s Bhoot seven years later.  She then turned producer and starred in two films- Soch Lo and Surkhaab. Madan was always fascinated by the teachings and discourses of the Dalai Lama, and embraced Buddhism in 2012 and quit the world of showbiz. She’s now a monk and has rechristened herself to Gyalten Samten. The Dalai Lama proclaimed a Mongolian boy born in US as the reincarnation of the third most important spiritual leader in Tibetan Buddhism last year. The eight-year-old boy was pictured with the Dalai Lama at a ceremony that took place in Dharamshala in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. Dharamshala is also the place where the Dalai Lama — Tenzin Gyatso –, 87, currently lives in exile and is recognised as the 10th Khalkha Jetsun Dhampa Rinpoche.