AnonyMo at 20:35, 17 May 2026

2026-05-17T20:35:41Z

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{{Short description|Indian yoga teacher Bikram Yoga}}
{{good article}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Bikram Choudhury
| image = Bikram Choudhury.jpg
| caption = At a book signing in New York in 2007
| birth_date = 1944<ref name="Horton 2019"/>
| birth_place = [[Calcutta]], [[British India]]
| death_date =
| death_place =
| known_for = Founder of [[Bikram Yoga]]
| occupation = [[Yoga]]
| spouse = {{marriage|Rajashree Choudhury|1984|2016|end=div}}
}}
'''Bikram Choudhury''' (born 1944) is an Indian-American [[Modern yoga gurus|yoga guru]],<ref name="Newcombe 2017">{{cite journal |last=Newcombe |first=Suzanne |author-link=Suzanne Newcombe |title=The Revival of Yoga in Contemporary India |journal=Religion |publisher=Oxford Research Encyclopedias |volume=1 |year=2017 |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.253|isbn=9780199340378 |url=http://oro.open.ac.uk/48147/1/April_Yoga_Revival_Newcombe.pdf }}</ref> and the founder of [[Bikram Yoga]], a form of [[hot yoga]] consisting of [[Postures of Bikram Yoga|a fixed series of 26 postures]] practised in a hot environment of {{convert|40|C}}. The business became a success in the United States and then across the Western world, with a variety of celebrity pupils. His former wife Rajashree Choudhury assisted him in the yoga business.

In 2009, he began a series of copyright claims to protect the series of postures of Bikram Yoga; this was ultimately unsuccessful, and other studios continue to teach the series.

Choudhury was the subject of civil suits [[Sexual abuse by yoga gurus|alleging sexual assault]] and discrimination against racial and sexual minorities. In 2017, a court awarded $7 million to his former lawyer, Minakshi Jafa-Bodden, who gained control of his yoga business when Choudhury fled to India without paying her. Since then he has continued to [[Yoga teacher training|train yoga teachers]] outside the United States in countries including Spain and Mexico.

==Life, Work, and Controversy==

===Early life===

Bikram Choudhury was born in [[Kolkata|Calcutta]], [[British India]] in 1944. He claimed to have begun studying yoga under [[Bishnu Charan Ghosh]],<ref>{{cite web |last1=Despres |first1=Loraine |title=Yoga's Bad Boy: Bikram Choudhury |url=https://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/yoga-s-bad-boy-bikram-choudhury |publisher=[[Yoga Journal]] |access-date=29 April 2020 |date=5 April 2017 |orig-year=2007}}</ref> and to have won the National India Yoga Championship for three consecutive years in his teens.<ref name="bodywork"/> However, the first ever Yoga competition in India took place in 1974, long after he had left the country.<ref name="bodywork">{{cite news |author=Schickel |first=Erica |title=Body Work |date=25 September 2003 |work=[[L.A. Weekly]] |url=https://www.laweekly.com/body-work/}}</ref> Recent evidence from interviews for the podcast series "30for30" on Choudhury (2018, [[ESPN]]) and from [[Jerome Armstrong]]'s book, ''Calcutta Yoga'', have proven his claim of winning the National India Yoga Championships to be false and also that he did not start his training under Ghosh at the age of 5 but rather in 1962 when he was 18. His initial focus was on bodybuilding and massage.<ref>{{cite AV media |last=Henderson |first=Julia L. |title=Bikram. ''30for30'', season 3, episodes 4&5 |publisher=[[ESPN]] |date=2018 |url=https://30for30podcasts.com/bikram/}}</ref><ref name="Armstrong 2018">{{cite book |last1=Armstrong |first1=Jerome |author-link1=Jerome Armstrong |title=Calcutta Yoga : Buddha Bose & the yoga family of Bishnu Ghosh and Yogananda |date=2018 |publisher=Webstrong |isbn=978-0692116715}}</ref> A few years later, during 1969, Bikram completed in six months his training on [[Asana]]s under Ghosh and other senior teachers, but he did not get the chance to finish his training on [[Pranayama]] (breathing exercises), [[Bandha (yoga)|Bandha]] (bodily locks) or [[Dhyāna in Hinduism|Dhyāna]] (focused meditation) before Ghosh died in 1970.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Armstrong |first1=Jerome |title=Calcutta Yoga |date=9 January 2020 |publisher=Pan Macmillan |isbn=978-1-5290-4811-7 |page=320 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QvjCDwAAQBAJ&dq=bikram+yoga-bayam&pg=PP321}}</ref>

Choudhury developed [[Postures of Bikram Yoga|a 26-posture series]], by piecing together existing sequences from over 500 poses and variations created by Ghosh, and put it into his signature series which takes about ninety minutes to perform.<ref name=bodywork/> The {{cvt|40|C|order=flip}} heat in which Bikram Yoga is practiced is, according to Choudhury, meant to mimic the climate of India.<ref name=bodywork/> Choudhury was closely associated with the United States's [[competitive yoga]] from its inception; the annual [[Bishnu Charan Ghosh Cup]] is named after his teacher.<ref name="Pollack 2009">{{cite magazine |last1=Pollack |first1=Neal |title=Top Yogi |url=https://slate.com/culture/2009/02/a-dispatch-from-the-sixth-annual-international-yoga-championship.html |magazine=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]] |date=17 February 2009}}</ref>

===Yoga in the United States===
{{further|Bikram Yoga}}

In 1971, Choudhury immigrated to the [[United States]] and began to teach yoga. He opened his first studio in Los Angeles, teaching his own style of yoga.<ref name=money>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2005/03/money-pose |title=The Money Pose |magazine=Mother Jones |author=Joshua Kurlantzick |date=March–April 2005}}</ref> The author Brigid Delaney describes the atmosphere around him as "fawning":<ref name="Delaney 2019"/> he was, she writes, treated reverentially, as if he were a guru, though he was a "braggart" openly boasting about the film stars he had taught and the money he had made.<ref name="Delaney 2019"/> He was rude and insulting to students;<ref name="Delaney 2019"/> in [[Netflix]]'s 2019 documentary film, ''[[Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator]]'' directed by [[Eva Orner]], he uses abusive language and jeers at overweight pupils.<ref name="Delaney 2019">{{cite news |last=Delaney |first=Brigid |title=He made a fortune from his trademarked Bikram yoga, but now his empire is in tatters |url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/dec/03/he-made-a-fortune-from-his-trademarked-bikram-yoga-but-now-his-empire-is-in-tatters |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=2 December 2019}}</ref> The critic Adrian Horton writes that the film "visually synthesizes decades of archival footage with first-person testimony and filmed court depositions into a devastating portrait of an abusive narcissist protected from consequences by his own inflated cult of personality, wealth and professional power within the niche world of [[hot yoga]]."<ref name="Horton 2019">{{cite news |last=Horton |first=Adrian |title='He got away with it': how the founder of Bikram yoga built an empire on abuse |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/nov/20/bikram-choudhury-yoga-founder-abuse-netflix-documentary |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=20 November 2019}}</ref>

All the same, Bikram Yoga expanded rapidly across the United States. In the 1990s, he began offering nine-week teacher certification courses, training thousands of instructors. Bikram Yoga studios were founded in many countries around the world.<ref name=laweekly>{{cite news |last=Moss |first=Rebecca |url=http://www.laweekly.com/2012-07-19/news/Bikram-yoga-greg-gumucio-bikram-choudhury/ |title=Bikram Choudhury Battles for Control of the Hot Yoga Tradition he Invented |date=19 July 2012 |newspaper=[[LA Weekly]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120723131044/http://www.laweekly.com/2012-07-19/news/Bikram-yoga-greg-gumucio-bikram-choudhury/ |archive-date=23 July 2012}}</ref> Choudhury taught celebrities such as the pop singers [[Madonna (entertainer)|Madonna]] and [[Lady Gaga]], and the footballer [[David Beckham]], and claimed to have taught yoga to American presidents [[Richard Nixon]], [[Ronald Reagan]] and [[Bill Clinton]].<ref name="Rushe Guardian 2013"/>


From 2009, Choudhury claimed that the series of 26 postures of his [[Yoga as exercise|yoga]] practice, [[Bikram Yoga]], was under [[copyright]] and could not be taught or presented by anyone whom he had not authorized.<ref name=Forbes>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/0921/entrepreneurs-franchising-bikram-yoga-new-twists.html |title=Bikram Yoga's New Twists |last=Farrell |first=Maureen |date=3 September 2009 |magazine=[[Forbes]]}}</ref> Choudhury began making [[copyright claims on Bikram Yoga]] in 2012. In 2011 Choudhury started a lawsuit against [[Yoga to the People]], a competing yoga studio founded by a former student and with a location near one of the Bikram Yoga studios in [[New York City]]. As a result of that lawsuit, the [[United States Copyright Office]] issued a clarification that yoga postures (''[[asanas]]'') could not be copyrighted, and that Yoga to the People and others could continue to teach the series.<ref>{{cite web |last=Brack |first=Kate |url=http://brooklynbased.com/blog/2013/04/19/the-fallout-from-a-downward-facing-dog-fight/ |title=The Fallout From A Downward-Facing Dog Fight |website=Brooklyn Based |date=13 April 2013}}</ref>

{{anchor|Sexual abuse}}

=== Sexual assault and harassment allegations===
{{further|Sexual abuse by yoga gurus}}
[[File:Bikram Yoga - with Bikram Choudhury - Flickr - tiarescott.jpg|thumb|Choudhury assisting a pupil in [[Paschimottanasana]] in his own style]]

Choudhury has faced lawsuits alleging [[sexual harassment]], assault, [[racism]] and [[homophobia]].<ref name="The Guardian">{{cite news |last=Godwin |first=Richard |title='He said he could do what he wanted': the Scandal that Rocked Bikram Yoga |url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/feb/18/bikram-hot-yoga-scandal-choudhury-what-he-wanted |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=18 February 2017}}</ref><ref name=newyorker>{{cite magazine |title=Yoga Reconsiders the Role of the Guru in the Age of #MeToo |last=Griswold |first=Eliza |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |date=23 July 2019 |url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/yoga-reconsiders-the-role-of-the-guru-in-the-age-of-metoo}}</ref> By January 2014, five women were suing Bikram Choudhury with allegations including sexual harassment and [[sexual assault]].<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Wallace |first=Benjamin |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/society/2014/01/bikram-choudhury-yoga-sexual-harassment |title=Is Yoga Guru Bikram Choudhury Sexually Assaulting His Students? |magazine=[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]] |date=19 December 2013}}</ref> Two lawsuits accusing Bikram Choudhury of [[rape]] were filed in May 2013, with other counts of sexual battery, [[false imprisonment]], discrimination, and harassment. One suit describes a cult-like atmosphere where members of Choudhury's inner circle help him find young women to assault.<ref>{{cite web |title=Rape Accusations Against Bikram Choudury |publisher=[[Yoga Journal]] |url=http://blogs.yogajournal.com/yogabuzz/2013/05/rape-accusations-against-birkram-choudury.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130608022324/http://blogs.yogajournal.com/yogabuzz/2013/05/rape-accusations-against-birkram-choudury.html |archive-date=8 June 2013 |date=8 June 2013}}</ref> Another suit claims that Choudhury recruits volunteers from overseas who are "so in fear of defendant Bikram Choudhury's wrath that they will travel to the US and risk violating immigration laws in order to serve him."<ref name="Rushe Guardian 2013">{{cite news |last=Rushe |first=Dominic |title=Yoga guru Bikram Choudhury accused of rape in two new lawsuits |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/may/14/bikram-yoga-sexual-assault-lawsuit |date=14 May 2013}}</ref> In 2016, Choudhury was ordered to pay a $6.8 million judgment for similar charges.<ref>{{Cite news |title=California: $6.5. Million Judgment Against Founder of Bikram Yoga |last=Associated Press |author-link=Associated Press |date=26 January 2016 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/27/us/california-dollar6-5-million-judgment-against-founder-of-bikram-yoga.html}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Grochowski |first=Sarah |date=Jan 21, 2023 |title=Controversial Bikram yoga founder's planned Vancouver workshops raising flags |url=https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/controversial-bikram-yoga-founders-planned-vancouver-workshops-raising-flags |website=Vancouver Sun}}</ref>

Minakshi Jafa-Bodden served as Head of Legal and International Affairs from Spring 2011 to March 13, 2013, when she was "abruptly and unlawfully terminated". During the two years that Jafa-Bodden worked closely with Choudhury, she was both the victim of and witness to Choudhury's "severe, ongoing, pervasive and offensive conduct" toward women, homosexuals, African Americans and other minorities. Bikram Yoga teacher Sarah Baughn filed a sexual harassment suit in March, just before Jafa-Bodden was fired.<ref>''Yoga Dork'' "Former Bikram Legal Advisor Files Extremely Disturbing Lawsuit over Sexual Harassment, Discrimination, Assault" http://yogadork.com/news/lawsuit-asana/bikrams-former-head-of-legal-files-extremely-disturbing-complaint-involving-sexual-harassment-discrimination/ {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130814071724/http://yogadork.com/news/lawsuit-asana/bikrams-former-head-of-legal-files-extremely-disturbing-complaint-involving-sexual-harassment-discrimination/ |date=2013-08-14 }}</ref> On January 25, 2016, a jury awarded Jafa-Bodden $924,500 against Choudhury in actual damages, finding that Choudhury acted with malice, oppression and fraud.<ref>{{cite news |title=Yoga guru Bikram Choudhury must pay $900,000 to former employee, jury decides |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=25 January 2016 |url=https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-yoga-guru-bikram-choudhury-20160125-story.html}}</ref> On January 26, 2016, the jury awarded Jafa-Bodden an additional $6.4 million in punitive damages.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Ceasar |first=Stephen |title=Yoga guru Bikram Choudhury must pay $6.4 million in punitive damages, jury decides |url=https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-bikram-yoga-lawsuit-20160126-story.html |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=26 January 2016}}</ref>

===Life after leaving the United States===
{{further|Postural yoga in India}}

In May 2016, Choudhury returned to India, where he began opening yoga studios.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.mid-day.com/articles/disgraced-hot-yoga-guru-bikram-choudhury-winds-up-us-business-sets-shop-in-lonavla/17272159 | title=Disgraced hot yoga guru Bikram Choudhury winds up US business, sets shop in Lonavla | date=26 May 2016}}</ref> In October 2016, Choudhury's attorney stated that his client would not return to the United States to defend himself in person at the other pending court cases.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.law360.com/articles/856055/yoga-guru-won-t-return-to-us-for-deposition-atty-says |title=Yoga Guru Won't Return to US for Deposition, Atty Says - Law360}}</ref> In a late 2016 interview on ''[[Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel]]'', Bikram responded to the accusations by asking, "Why would I have to harass women? People spend one million dollars for a drop of my sperm", and calling his accusers "trash" and "psychopaths".<ref name="HuffPoBikramResponse">{{cite news |last=Hatch |first=Jenavieve |title=Bikram Yoga Creator Loses It When Asked About Sexual Assault Allegations |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bikram-choudhury-loses-it-when-asked-about-sexual-assault-allegations_us_58139871e4b0390e69d0014a |work=[[Huffington Post]] |date=28 October 2016}}</ref>

In May 2017, a Los Angeles judge issued a warrant for Choudhury's arrest, on the grounds that he had fled the country without paying any of the $7 million owed to Jafa-Bodden in compensation and [[punitive damages]].<ref name="People_20170525">{{cite magazine |last=Harris |first=Chris |title=Arrest Warrant Issued after Hot Yoga Founder Allegedly Fled U.S. Without Paying $7M Lawsuit |url=http://people.com/crime/arrest-warrant-issued-hot-yoga-founder-bikram-choudhury/ |magazine=[[People Magazine]] |access-date=26 May 2017}}</ref> The ''[[New York Daily News]]'' reported that luxury vehicles and other items of Choudhury's had been moved out of state, and that a court order preventing him from moving any of his other possessions out of warehouses in Florida and Nevada had been issued.<ref name="NYDN_20170526">{{cite news |last=Bodner |first=Brett | title=Arrest warrant issued for yoga mogul Bikram Choudhury in California |url=http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/arrest-warrant-issued-yoga-mogul-bikram-choudury-article-1.3194681 |newspaper=[[New York Daily News]] |date=26 May 2017}}</ref>

Despite Choudhury's departure in disgrace, people continued to attend his teacher trainings, such as in [[Murcia, Spain]] and [[Acapulco, Mexico]] in 2019. The yoga teacher [[Jessamyn Stanley]] called it "bizarre" that people would still take his trainings after all the rape allegations against him.<ref>{{cite news |last=Hatch |first=Jenavieve |title=Why Are You Still Doing Bikram Yoga? {{!}} While disgraced yoga guru Bikram Choudhury hides out in Mexico amid allegations of rape and harassment, women all over the world are still giving him their money |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/why-are-you-still-doing-bikram-yoga_uk_5d4fdcf5e4b0820e0af69b91 |newspaper=[[Huffington Post]] |date=8 November 2019}}</ref>

After the broadcast of the Netflix 2019 documentary ''Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator'', multiple studios removed "Bikram Yoga" from their name and replaced it with the term "Hot Yoga" instead, while others chose to maintain it.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Settembre |first1=Jeanette |title=Netflix's 'Bikram' doc prompts hot yoga studios to spend thousands on re-branding |url=https://www.foxbusiness.com/money/netflixs-bikram-doc-prompts-hot-yoga-studios-to-spend-thousands-on-re-branding |access-date=14 December 2021 |work=[[Fox Business]] |date=6 December 2019}}</ref>

In January 2023, despite public outcry and the possibility of arrest, it was reported that Choudhury was planning to teach yoga and give lectures in [[Vancouver, British Columbia]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Schettler |first=Renee Marie |date=2023-02-03 |title=He Faced Allegations of Sexual Assault and Rape From Students for Years. Now Bikram Choudhury is "Back" Teaching in Canada. |url=https://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/bikram-choudhury-teaching-yoga/ |access-date=2023-08-03 |website=Yoga Journal |language=en-US}}</ref>

==Personal life==

In 1984, Choudhury married Rajashree Choudhury, who assisted him in founding the United States Yoga Federation and the International Yoga Sports Federation (IYSF).<ref name="Barr Indy 2019">{{cite news |last=Barr |first=Sabrina |title=Bikram Choudhury: Who is the yoga guru accused of rape and sexual abuse? |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/bikram-choudhury-yoga-rape-sexual-abuse-netflix-documentary-who-a9210771.html |work=[[The Independent]] |date=20 November 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Founder of International Yoga Sports Federation |url=http://i.yogasportsfederation.org/rajashree-choudhury |publisher=IYSF |access-date=5 June 2012}}</ref> She won the first National Yoga Championship held by the Yoga Federation of India in 1979, followed by four more consecutive years as National Yoga Champion.<ref name="Hart 2016">{{cite news |last=Hart |first=Anna |title=How Bikram Choudhury's divorce is tearing the yoga world apart |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/how-bikram-choudhurys-divorce-is-tearing-the-yoga-world-apart/ |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |date=5 January 2016 |quote='I met my husband when I was balancing my body on swords — one of the acts as part of the competition', said Rajashree, five-time winner of the All-India Yoga Championship between 1979 to 1983.}}</ref> In December 2015, after 31 years of marriage, Rajashree filed for divorce citing irreconcilable differences. The divorce was finalized in May 2016. Rajashree was awarded the houses in [[Beverly Hills]] and Los Angeles, and some of his luxury cars, while he kept the apartment in [[Hawaii]]. The settlement indemnified Rajashree from financial responsibility in Bikram's pending (or possible future) lawsuits.<ref name="Hart 2016"/><ref>{{Cite news |last=Staufenberg |first=Jess |title=Bikram Yoga founder's wife seeks divorce after rape allegations |newspaper=[[The Independent]] |date=28 December 2015 |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/bikram-yoga-founders-wife-seeks-divorce-after-rape-allegations-a6788331.html}}</ref>

==Books==

* {{cite book |last1=Choudhury |first1=Bikram |last2=Reynolds |first2=Bonnie Jones |year=2000 |orig-year=1978 |title=Bikram's Beginning Yoga Class |edition=New |editor=J. Goldstein |publisher=[[Thorsons]] |isbn=978-0007154999 |url=https://archive.org/details/bikramsbeginning00chou |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Choudhury |first=Bikram |title=Bikram Yoga: The Guru Behind Hot Yoga Shows the Way to Radiant Health and Personal Fulfillment |publisher=[[HarperCollins Publishers]] |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-06-056808-5 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/bikramyogagurube00chou |ref=none}}

==See also==

* [[K. Pattabhi Jois]]

==References==

{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20150626220153/http://bikramyoga.com/ Official Bikram Yoga website]

{{Yoga as exercise}}
{{Modern yoga gurus}}

{{Authority control}}



{{DEFAULTSORT:Choudhury, Bikram}}
[[Category:1944 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:American yoga teachers]]
[[Category:Indian emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:American Hindus]]
[[Category:Bengali Hindus]]
[[Category:Modern yoga pioneers]]
[[Category:Modern Indian yoga gurus]]
[[Category:American people of Bengali descent]]

Bikram Choudhury - Revision history

AnonyMo at 20:35, 17 May 2026