Dream Girl Hema Malini's incredible journey from an actor, a danseuse and filmmaker to a politician is being chronicled in a new book which will hit stores on her 69th birthday this October.

Billed as an authorised biography, "Hema Malini: Beyond the Dream Girl" is penned by author-columnist Ram Kamal Mukherjee.

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"In an industry where the male star has always driven the commercial success of films, Hema Malini was an exception, with her name alone sufficing to ensure a film's box-office glory," publisher HarperCollins India said.

A truly multi-faceted personality, Hema Malini has been a filmmaker and producer, directing films and television serials, a Member of Parliament from Mathura, and has also performed the classical dance ballets Draupadi, Radha Krishna and Durga.

This year she will be seen in Ramesh Sippy's unusual love story "Shimla Mirch" with Rajkumar Rao.

The book will be published on her birthday on October 16.

Speaking about the book, Hema Malini says, "As editor-in-chief of Stardust, Ram Kamal, had done a coffee table book on me almost 10 years ago. It was a beautiful pictorial representation of my career as an actor. I wish him all the best for his latest endeavour with HarperCollins in writing another book on me." 

Mukherjee says this is the right time to revisit Hema Malini's life and achievement, since she has been extremely active as a stage performer, actor and a politician.

"My first book on Hema Malini was pictorial, but this time it will be more about her achievement as a politician apart from her sojourn as an actor, danseuse and filmmaker. It will offer a new perspective on Bollywood's first female superstar." 

Shantanu Ray Chaudhuri, executive editor, HarperCollins India, says, "For an entire generation in the 1970s and 80s, the name Hema Malini was synonymous with everything that was beautiful and glamorous. To get an inside look at the life of one of our greatest cinema icons is simply incredible.