The very gorgeous and extremely talented small screen actress Shonali Malhotra is quite a recognizable name in tellydom. She was born on 27th September and started her modeling career in the year 1998 and did her first commercial campaign with the great Bollywood actor Aftab Shivdasani endorsing the brand Coca Cola. After being spotted in that particular ad campaign she was offered the role of Ruma soon after in the soap titled `Aashirwad`. In this soap she played an NRI girl from Mauritius. She is a hard-core believer in the self-employment from the tender age of 14.

Being adept in the art of Western Dance she launched her own dance academy, which she started with only 5 students, and now with the increasing popularity it sees an increase in the number of students as well. She was seen in the character portrayal of Neena in the very popular Star Plus soap titled `Milliee`. She was also seen doing Sony Television`s `Dulhaan and also Star One`s `Dil Kya Chahta Hai`. In the latter she was seen in the character portrayal of Madhavi with which she could really relate herself. She is as cool as Madhavi. She had great fun doing the show as it was a fun show and she being the only constant female character got noticed immensely. She was also seen hosting a show on Sahara One `Bollywood Aur Kya`.

Though Shonali Malhotra is an extremely positive person by heart she is most often seen essaying negative roles may be because she does not have the typical `bechaari` looks`. She asserts the fact that she wants to do positive roles but some how her attitude and body language does not make her ideally suited for typical goody goody type of characters. She believes that she is not made for such kind of characters, as those do not give her the scope to display her acting flair. She also regrets about having rejected the role of Mallika in the very popular soap `Jassi Jaissi Koi nahin`. But she makes it up career wise by doing equally good character portrayals in other soaps. Along with acting, anchoring, hosting she is a multi-faceted persona but laments over the fact that she is very bad in maintaining social contacts.

On the personal front Shonali Malhotra is a very family oriented girl and has a lot of responsibilities towards her family. For her career she would never like to neglect her responsibilities towards her family. She is happily married to a businessman sharing the same name of an actor Ashish Soni. She is also a great cook and often whips up finger-licking Punjabi delicacies for her entire family. She is one of the very few actresses who are not at all interested to do films. She feels genuinely touched by the way her fans accept and shower her with compliments and appreciation towards her work. She also feels touched by very simple things in life like her maid`s loyalty and her watchman`s appreciation. She prays to the Almighty to shower her with such blessings throughout her entire life and she also promises to live upto the expectations of her sincere fan following.