A Charmed Life

Rita Mulchandani In Conversation With Raakhee Jhangiani Mukhey.

- Rita Mulchandani

Born in Mumbai and now settled in LA, Raakhee Mukhey has had the good fortune of leading a sheltered yet emancipated life. Brought up in a very close-knit, modern Sindhi family, she had the freedom of choice when it came to selecting her future. Luckily for her, her decisions concurred with those of her charming, disciplinarian father Govind Jhangiani, a retired Captain in the Indian Navy, her enterprising and beautiful mother Asha, and her beloved mentor - her older brother Nikhil.

As we sit down to chat, she reminisces about her fun childhood and recalls an amusing story from when she was just a little girl. She would quiz her friends about a very complicated riddle. This involved holding their hands. At the end of it all, when they couldn’t answer the riddle, she would look at them with the biggest smile on her face and announce that although she didn’t know the answer either, it was a pleasure holding their hands!

Seeing the endearing personality that Raakhee is today, this story from her childhood is completely in character.

Raakhee spent her formative years in Mumbai, studying at the Cathedral and John Connon School, followed by St. Joseph’s Convent and then St. Xavier’s College (which is where her modeling career got going!). She was discovered by a modeling agency when she was just a teenager and went on to do commercials, both in print and on television. She was also the VJ for an Indian TV Show called “Mile Sur Mera Tumhara.” Soon after, Bollywood came a-knocking, but for a number of reasons Raakhee declined. She continued modeling and acting until she left to attend the University of Hartford, Connecticut for a degree in Mass Communications. “While I loved it for the academics and made the most of my time there, I couldn’t wait to come home and continue with my work and be with my family,” she shares.