She is considered to be one of the most successful actresses in South Indian movies. Simran was born on born 4 April 1976, in Maharastra. Her real name is "Rishibala Naval".Her nick name is "Sonu".
Simran was born as the first daughter to Ashok Naval and Saradha Naval. She has two sisters, late Monal, an actress who committed suicide, and Jyothi Naval and a brother named Sumith.
Simran finished her B.Com and was doing modeling simultaneously in Mumbai. After some time she entered into the film industry.
Simran got her break in Indian Cinema when Jaya Bachchan saw her anchoring super hit Muqabla, Doordarshan’s TV show on Metro Channel a decade ago after performing on stage for her college. Simran debuted with Tere Mere Sapne, a comic thriller, the first production of ABCL (Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Limited) but unfortunately the film failed to enthuse in the box-office.
Simran made her cinematic debut in Saawan Kumar Tak’s ‘Sanam Harzai’ bou went unnoticed. She was later signed by Amitabh Bachchan’s Production Company ABCL Corp to play the female lead in ‘Tere Mere Sapne’. The film also starred other newcomers like Arshad Warsi, Chandrachur Singh and Priya Gill. ‘Tere Mere Sapne’ became a box office success and Simran was next seen in films like ‘Bal Bramhachari ‘and ‘Anari No. 1’.
Later she moved to South Indian Movies by acting first in a high budget Malayalam film, Indraprastham with Mammootty and Vikram.
Then she came to Tamil movie industry with Nerukku Ner starring Vijay and Surya in 1997. The movie was a huge success and she was highly appreciated for her dancing skills in the song Manam Virumbudhe. Then she starred in several successful movies such as V.I.P (1997), Natpukkaga (1998), Aval Varuvala (1998) and Kannedhirey Thondrinal (1998) with leading actors Prabhu Deva, Sarath Kumar, Ajith Kumar and Prasanth respectively.
In 1999, she got her first blockbuster hit with the movie Thulladha Manamum Thullum opposite Vijay. Her performance as a blind girl was well praised. She won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actress for the movie. In the same year she acted in the blockbuster Vaali opposite Ajith Kumar and won several awards which includes Filmfare award, Tamil Nadu government award and Kalaimaamani award.
In the year 1997, Simran plunged into Telugu film industry and appeared in films like ‘Abbayi Gari Pelli’, ‘Priya O Priya’, ‘Maa Nannaki Pelli’, 'Autodriver’, and so on. She enjoyed the success in Telugu movie industry too as she acted with all the super stars of Tollywood such as Chiranjeevi, Balakrishna, Nagarjuna and Venkatesh. She has received Nandi Award twice for the films Nuvvuvasthavani in 2000 and Narasimha Naidu in 2001 and Filmfare award twice for the same movies.
She also appeared in a Kannada film ‘Simhada Mari’.
Simran was one of the leading ladies during late 90's and early 2000 and at the peak of her career commanded a salary package of up to 75 lakhs per movie.She has done numerous modelling assignments with some of the top local and gobal marketing and modelling firms including Ford Motors, Lux, PepsiCo, SubWay, Loreal, Hindustan Lever, Colgate Palmolive, Paraag Sarees, Chandana Brothers and ICICI.
She speaks Tamil, Punjabi, Hindi, English. Simran is a versatile dancer and can perform Bharatanatyam with the same ease as she performs Salsa.
In the year 1999 she was featured in Forbes Magazine as the most prolific actress with diverse portfolio from the Indian sub continent.
She’s acted in many of the movies and speaks various different languages like Tamil, Telugu, Punjabi, Hindi and English
Simran dated with dancer Raju Sundaram. Later the pair was seperated due to Simran's sizzling affair with superstar Kamal Haasan.
Simran married Deepak Bagga, a long time friend and a commander for Kingfisher Airlines, on 2 December 2003. They have a son 'Adheep' born on 11 June 2005.
Simran is one of the best actress in Tamil Cinema. She got up to 75 lakhs to 2 crores during her peak period.
Now she is acting in Telugu and Tamil TV serials.
She is one of the best film actresses in that industry and will continue to remain so in the future. Though Simran is a little disappointed that she could not make it big in Hindi where she was first introduced she is happy she has made it Tamil and Telugu both regional languages. She has acted in a couple of Malayalam films too.