Her first film with Dharmendra was Tum Haseen Main Jawaan (1970). The two got married in 1980.Dharmendra’s first wife refused to divorce him, so the two converted to Islam and tied the knot in a secret ceremony at Khandaala.Malini was born in a Tamil Iyengar Brahmin family to Jaya Lakshmi and VSR Chakravarti Iyengar in Srirangam. She attended the Andhra Mahila Sabha in Chennai where her favourite subject was history.