LAW OF LIFE

Celebrity lawyer and former model-screenwriter Priyanka Khimani credits her underprivileged upbringing for contributing to her success in the legal battlefield

- Neha Kirpal

Young lawyer and screenwriter Priyanka Khimani moves in and out of celebrity circles in Bollywood – as the co-founder and lead partner of Anand & Anand & Khimani, she has handled a number of high-profile cases, such as representing filmmaker Anurag Kashyap in the #MeToo allegations against him, acting for rapper Badshah with respect to the recent interrogations by the Mumbai Crime Branch on fake social media followers and as a legal advisor to the late actor Sushant Singh Rajput. She has also been a model and theatre artist herself.

But not many know the remarkable journey of a girl who started out with few resources and no privileges, and achieved what she did by grit, intelligence and hard work.

Raised by Muslim and Gujarati parents in a typical Mumbai chawl, Priyanka says that it’s still home for her, and a humbling experience each time she goes back there. “I owe almost all of my personality and strengths to the place and circumstances in which I was raised. Even before my parents were able to afford a room in the chawl, they raised me for the first few months right after I was born in the back of a photocopying (“xerox” as they called it) shop outside Mahim station that they ran. The back of our shop would double up as home when it closed for business for the day,” says the dynamic 32-year-old.