Vaishnavi Mahant

Vaishnavi Mahant is an Indian film and TV actress who is best known for playing Geeta Biswas in Mukesh Khanna's television series Shaktimaan, telecasted on Doordarshan. She has acted in various Bollywood films such as Bambai Ka Babu, opposite Saif Ali Khan, Ladlaa and Barsaat Ki Raat (1998). She is also known for playing Shilpa Sharma in Miley Jab Hum Tum, Shail in the Zee TV show Sapne Suhane Ladakpan Ke and Leela Taneja in the television series Tashan-E-Ishq.

From 1998 to 2005, she played the female lead Geeta Vishwas in the superhero series Shaktimaan on Doordarshan. The show, as well as her character, got high acclaim and was considered her breakthrough role. When her journalist character Geeta Vishwas was written out of the series, fan protests prompted the producers to bring her back. In 2000, she played the role of ACP Ratna, a daring police officer in the comedy serial Raju Raja Rajasaab on Sahara TV.

As a child she moved to Hyderabad where she decided to become a scientist. However, while vacationing in Mumbai, she had the opportunity to appear in the Ramsay Brothers' horror film Veerana and decided to pursue acting as a profession. She subsequently appeared in Barsaat Ki Raat, Ladlaa, Maidan-E-Jung, Bambai Ka Babu, Daanveer and Oru Mutham Manimutham (a 1997 Malayalam film with actor Mukesh).

Her father is a Vaishnav Hindu (the reason she took the screen name Vaishnavi), while her mother is Christian. Raised as a Hindu, she converted to Christianity in the early 1990s. She is currently a born again Christian believer who is more into a relationship with God not religion.