Certainly one of the most classically beautiful actresses to ever grace Hindi Popular cinema, Tina Munim exemplified the look of 1980s hip middle class youth. In fact, she was a magazine cover girl and international beauty pageant queen (or more technically princess) by the time she was 15 years old. Munim was one of the first Indian beauty queens to follow their pageant career with acting in Bollywood.

Dev Anand was looking for a new actress to star in his next film. Legend has it he saw the cover of Femina magazine with Tina Munim on it celebrating her return from the International Teen Princess contest at Aruba. Anand contacted Munim and asked her if she wanted to act in films. At first reluctant because she was intending to follow a fashion design career in Paris, Tina relented to give acting a try.

Dev Anand, the savvy showman he was, capitalized on Tina Munim's popularity with "Des Pardes" [1978]. She was still only 16 years old. The movie, much due to the novelty of Tina Munim, went on to be Anand's last big hit as a film maker.

In 1980 Sunil Dutt launched his son Sanjay in his film debut "Rocky". Tina Munim was chosen as Sanjay's heroine. The screen love story blossomed into a real life affair and Tina and Sanjay became romantically linked to each other. Their relationship was short lived, and the breakup is said to have devastated Sanjay.

In the mid 1980s Munim made the conscious decision to put her Bollywood career on hiatus. She moved to California where she studied and got a college degree. In 1991 she returned to India and later married industrialist Anil Ambani. Today she is involved in a number of charity, arts, and talent endeavors.