Bikram Choudhury

Bikram Choudhury is a yoga teacher.

He made a special kind of yoga. It uses 26 different moves. People do these moves in a hot room. He said the heat feels like India.

Many famous people learned his yoga. But some people say he was mean. They also said he was not fair to others. He moved from India to the United States. Now he lives in India again. He still teaches yoga in other lands.

Bikram Choudhury is a yoga teacher. He was born in 1944 in India. He moved to the United States in 1971. He is known for a style called Bikram Yoga.

This yoga uses 26 special moves. People do these moves in a very hot room. Choudhury said the heat mimics the climate in India. His yoga style became very popular. Many famous people, like Madonna, practiced it. He also trained many teachers in nine-week courses.

Choudhury had many legal problems. He tried to claim a copyright on his moves. A court said he could not do this. Other studios can still teach his moves. He also faced many lawsuits from women. They said he treated them very badly. They accused him of many wrong acts. A court ordered him to pay millions of dollars.

In 2016, Choudhury went back to India. He left the United States without paying the money he owed. He still teaches yoga in places like Spain and Mexico. Some studios now use the name "Hot Yoga" instead of his name.

Bikram Choudhury is a yoga teacher who became very famous. He was born in 1944 in Calcutta, which was then part of British India. He is known for creating a specific style called Bikram Yoga. This style uses a set series of 26 postures, or yoga moves. People practice these moves in a very hot room. Choudhury said the heat was meant to feel like the weather in India.

His yoga business grew very large in the United States and the Western world. He taught many famous people, such as singers Madonna and Lady Gaga. He also taught the footballer David Beckham. Some people even claimed he taught American presidents like Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton. In the 1990s, he started training new teachers through nine-week courses. This helped his style spread to many different countries around the globe. Many people looked up to him as a guru, which is a teacher.

Choudhury's history includes some disagreements about his past. He said he won yoga championships as a teenager. However, recent evidence suggests these claims were not true. It also appears he began his yoga training in 1962 when he was 18. He studied under a teacher named Bishnu Charan Ghosh. Choudhury finished training on many poses by 1970. He built his 26-move series by picking from over 500 different poses.

He also faced many difficult legal battles in court. In 2009, he tried to claim a copyright on his yoga moves. He wanted to stop others from teaching them without his permission. A court ruled that yoga moves cannot be copyrighted. This meant other studios could keep teaching the series. Choudhury also faced many lawsuits from women. These women accused him of many wrong things, including harassment and assault. In 2017, a court ordered him to pay $7 million to his former lawyer, Minakshi Jafa-Bodden.

Life changed for Choudhury after these legal problems. In 2016, he moved back to India. He left the United States without paying the money he owed to the court. Even so, he has continued to train yoga teachers in places like Spain and Mexico. Because of the many accusations against him, some studios changed their names. Instead of calling it Bikram Yoga, they now call it "Hot Yoga." This shows how much his actions changed the yoga world.

Bikram Choudhury is an Indian-American yoga guru who founded a specific style known as Bikram Yoga. This practice is a form of hot yoga that utilizes a fixed series of 26 postures, or asanas. These movements are performed in a heated environment designed to mimic the climate of India. Choudhury became a highly successful businessman, expanding his influence across the United States and the Western world. His methods gained massive popularity through a variety of celebrity pupils and a large network of trained instructors.

The mechanism of Bikram Yoga involves a specific sequence of movements practiced in high temperatures. Choudhury developed this 26-posture series by selecting from over 500 different poses and variations. These original sequences were created by his teacher, Bishnu Charan Ghosh. The practice takes approximately ninety minutes to complete. By combining these specific asanas, Choudhury created a signature series that distinguishes his brand from other yoga traditions.

Choudhury's history and the origins of his claims have been subjects of significant scrutiny. He was born in 1944 in Calcutta, British India. He claimed to have studied yoga under Bishnu Charan Ghosh starting at age five. He also claimed to have won the National India Yoga Championship for three years in a row during his teens. However, evidence from the "30for30" podcast and the book "Calcutta Yoga" suggests these claims were false. Records indicate he actually began his training in 1962 at age 18. He completed his training on asanas in 1969 but did not finish training in Pranayama, which are breathing exercises. He also did not complete training in Bandha, or bodily locks, or Dhyāna, which is focused meditation, before Ghosh died in 1970.

In the United States, Choudhury's career saw rapid expansion and immense influence. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1971 and opened his first studio in Los Angeles. During the 1990s, he established nine-week teacher certification courses. This system trained thousands of instructors worldwide. His fame was bolstered by teaching celebrities like Madonna, Lady Gaga, and David Beckham. He also claimed to have taught American presidents including Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. This professional power helped build a massive global business presence.

Despite his success, Choudhury faced major legal challenges regarding intellectual property. In 2009, he began making copyright claims to protect his specific series of 26 postures. He argued that no one could teach this sequence without his authorization. In 2011, he filed a lawsuit against Yoga to the People, a competing studio in New York City. This legal battle led to a significant ruling by the United States Copyright Office. The office clarified that yoga postures, or asanas, could not be copyrighted. This decision allowed other studios to continue teaching the series without permission.

Choudhury's legacy is also defined by serious civil lawsuits involving allegations of misconduct. He faced multiple suits alleging sexual assault, sexual harassment, and discrimination against racial and sexual minorities. By January 2014, five women were suing him for various forms of assault and harassment. In 2016, a jury awarded $6.8 million in a judgment related to these charges. His former lawyer, Minakshi Jafa-Bodden, also won a massive legal victory. In 2017, a court awarded her a total of $7 million. This amount included $924,500 in actual damages and $6.4 million in punitive damages. The court found that Choudhury had acted with malice, oppression, and fraud.

The consequences of these legal battles changed Choudhury's life and the yoga industry. In May 2016, he returned to India. He left the United States while facing pending court cases and unpaid judgments. A Los Angeles judge issued a warrant for his arrest because he fled without paying the $7 million owed to Jafa-Bodden. Even after his departure, he continued to train teachers in countries like Spain and Mexico. This caused controversy among yoga practitioners. Following the 2019 Netflix documentary "Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator," many studios changed their branding. They removed the name "Bikram Yoga" and instead used the term "Hot Yoga" to distance themselves from his reputation.