Bikram Choudhury — Meteoric Rise, Global Influence, and a Controversial Legacy

A Hard-Knock Beginning in Calcutta

Born on February 10, 1944, in Calcutta, India, Bikram Choudhury grew up in a modest environment that belied the global footprint he would later create. As a youth, he gravitated toward physical culture — bodybuilding and weightlifting — before beginning yoga under what he described as the mentorship of Bishnu Charan Ghosh.

His early narrative claims a meteoric rise: competing in and winning the “National India Yoga Championship” for several years as a teenager.  According to his own telling, a knee injury during weightlifting — so severe that doctors advised he might never walk again — became the catalyst for his pivot into developing a yoga practice designed to rebuild strength. 

Reinventing Yoga: From Calcutta to Hollywood

In the early 1970s, Bikram relocated — via a stint teaching in Japan — to the United States, where he opened his first yoga studio.  His ambition was simple but bold: adapt traditional yoga for Western students, combining discipline with a structure that could yield tangible physical transformations.

He synthesized what became known as Bikram Yoga — a fixed sequence of 26 hatha yoga postures and breathing exercises, practiced in a heated room (roughly 104 °F / 40 °C) over about 90 minutes. The heat was intentionally introduced to mimic the climate of India and to facilitate flexibility — a draw for Western practitioners.

As word spread, Bikram Yoga attracted a high-profile clientele. Early adopters reportedly included celebrities, aiming to combine wellness, fitness, and glamour — an appealing concoction for a growing yoga-obsessed West.

Building an Empire — and an Identity

With Bikram Yoga growing in appeal, Choudhury transformed his practice into a large-scale enterprise. He established a certification and licensing model: teachers had to undergo rigorous training to lead his sequence, and studios had to officially license the “Bikram” brand to operate under it.

This model proved financially lucrative. Some estimates — though not from institutional finance media — place his net worth around US $75 million at the height of his empire.  According to one retrospective account, Choudhury at one point reportedly owned a fleet of luxury cars, symbolizing the fortune he amassed through the franchise and licensing model.

His transformation from Kolkata athlete to “guru-entrepreneur” made him something of a cultural phenomenon — and an icon of the yoga-meets-commercialism era.

Personal Life and Relationships: Foundations and Fractures

Over the years, Choudhury’s personal life became intertwined with his professional identity. He was married to Rajashree Choudhury, herself involved in the yoga community. The couple had at least two children — a son and a daughter. Their daughter, Laju Choudhury, later became a yoga instructor and has publicly defended her father’s creation, even while acknowledging the larger controversy surrounding him.

However, the marriage did not last. In 2015, Rajashree filed for divorce amid mounting legal and reputational pressures on Choudhury. As part of the settlement, she reportedly received the couple’s Beverly Hills mansion, several luxury cars, and an indemnification from future legal claims arising from her ex-husband’s conduct. 

The divorce and its fallout reflected how deeply Choudhury’s personal and business lives had merged — and how both unraveled under public scrutiny.

A Legacy Shadowed by Serious Allegations

For decades, Bikram’s narrative was one of transformation: yoga as salvation, strength regained through discipline. But starting in the 2010s, a series of allegations fundamentally challenged that story. Multiple women came forward claiming sexual harassment, assault, and rape — many of them former students or trainees. 

The full scale of these allegations — and their impact — has cast a long shadow over what was once a celebrated brand. A documentary film, Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator (2019), chronicles these accusations alongside the meteoric rise of Bikram Yoga, offering a stark look at the human cost behind the empire.

Legally, Choudhury also faced challenges: his efforts to claim copyright protection over the 26-posture sequence were struck down. In 2015, a U.S. appeals court affirmed that yoga postures — even in a fixed sequence — do not qualify for copyright.

These developments fractured the yoga community. Many studios distanced themselves from his name, rebranded, or disassociated entirely.

Reconciling Innovation with Controversy

The story of Bikram Choudhury is — much like his heated yoga sessions — intense and polarizing. On one hand, he revolutionized yoga for a global audience. Many people worldwide owe their first introduction to yoga, stretching, flexibility, and mindfulness to the “hot yoga” craze he helped ignite.

On the other hand, his legacy is irrevocably marred by serious allegations, legal defeats, and a divorce that symbolized the unraveling of both a personal and business empire.

His reported net worth remains a sign of the scale and commercial success he once enjoyed; yet financial figures alone cannot erase the scandals or the trauma described by survivors.

For some, his evolution is a cautionary tale: when spiritual practice becomes big business, when power dynamics are hidden behind wellness rhetoric, and when charisma charts a course for empire — the consequences can be as heated as the yoga rooms he invented.