Last updated: July 2026
Millions of people around the world practice Bikram Yoga every day — but many of them don't know who created it. Behind this powerful yoga system is a man named Bikram Choudhury, whose story is both transformational and controversial.
This article focuses specifically on Choudhury the person — his early life, personality, and the controversies that followed — because understanding who he was helps explain why choosing a teacher training programme today means looking past a famous name to the actual credentials and character of whoever is teaching you. For the institutional story of how the method itself survived his fall — the copyright ruling, the rebranding wave, the research that followed — see the full history of Bikram yoga, written from the firsthand perspective of Mr. Ian Terry, E-RYT 500, who trained directly under Choudhury across 5 events between 2012 and 2019.
So who is Bikram Choudhury? And what does his story mean for the future of Bikram Yoga?
Who Is Bikram Choudhury?
Bikram Choudhury was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata), India, in 1944. At just four years old, he began practicing yoga under Bishnu Charan Ghosh, a respected yoga master and the younger brother of Paramahansa Yogananda, author of Autobiography of a Yogi.
By age 13, Bikram had won the National India Yoga Championship. Later, he claimed yoga healed a knee injury that doctors believed would prevent him from walking again. That moment convinced him that yoga could be used as medicine.
In the 1970s, he moved to the United States and started teaching yoga in Beverly Hills. His students included celebrities, athletes, and those seeking healing.
Bikram didn't just teach yoga — he built a brand around his own personality. He attempted to copyright his sequence, launched a global certification programme, and declared himself the only authority to teach "true" Bikram Yoga. His strict teaching style, bold personality, and confidence attracted both devoted students and sharp critics.
He also developed a teacher training course that became globally recognised. Many graduates went on to open studios using his name. By the 2000s, Bikram Yoga had become a multi-million-dollar global empire built substantially around one man's personal brand.
The Man Behind the Sequence
Bikram selected and arranged the set sequence of 26 postures and 2 breathing exercises from his training under Ghosh, practiced in a room heated to 105°F (40.6°C) with 40% humidity. His personal contribution was less inventing the postures than insisting — with characteristic force of personality — on absolute consistency: the sequence never changed, studio to studio, decade to decade.
That insistence on consistency is genuinely part of why the method worked as a scalable teaching system. It is also, by most accounts, connected to the same controlling personality that later produced the allegations below. The two are not separable in his biography, even though — as the history of the practice lays out in detail — they are separable in the practice itself.
Bikram's Global Influence
By the 1990s and early 2000s, Bikram Yoga had become a global movement. Teacher trainings expanded. Studios opened worldwide. Thousands of students enrolled to become certified instructors.
Bikram became a celebrity himself. He was known for wearing only a Speedo and gold Rolex while teaching, adding drama and flair to his classes — a personal showmanship that was, itself, part of the draw for many students at the time.
Many praised him for creating a method that was physically intense yet accessible. Celebrities such as Madonna and George Clooney, along with professional athletes, turned to Bikram Yoga for recovery and strength.
Controversies and Legal Issues
Despite his fame, Bikram Choudhury's reputation took a dramatic turn in the early 2010s, when multiple former students and employees came forward with serious allegations — including sexual harassment, discrimination, and abuse of power. Lawsuits followed, and in 2016, his former legal adviser, Minakshi "Miki" Jafa-Bodden, won a landmark case. The court ordered Bikram to pay over $7 million in damages, as reported by The Guardian.
The allegations revealed deeply disturbing behaviour — including inappropriate comments, manipulation, and a controlling training environment. Many former students described a culture of fear tied directly to Choudhury's personal need for control. Their stories were brought to a global audience in the Netflix documentary Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator.
Bikram left the United States and returned to India, continuing to teach abroad. A California court issued a warrant for his arrest. Because the original case was civil and Bikram remained outside U.S. borders, he was not immediately extradited — a situation widely covered by ABC News and BBC News. In 2023, a California court convicted him in absentia on criminal charges including rape and false imprisonment; he has not returned to the United States to serve the sentence.
In 2020, ABC7 News reported that Bikram's luxury car collection and yoga studio assets were being auctioned off in Mexico to help pay legal fees and damages owed to victims — one of the few consequences he could not avoid while living abroad. For the complete legal timeline and where he stands as of 2026, see the current state of Bikram yoga.
As a result, most yoga studios dropped the "Bikram" name and rebranded as Original Hot Yoga or 26&2 Yoga. The method lives on — deliberately separated from the man who created it.
What This Means If You're Choosing a Teacher Training
Choudhury's story is a useful cautionary example precisely because his brand was built almost entirely around personal charisma and self-declared authority rather than institutional accountability. That is a pattern worth checking for in any programme, not just his.
The 26&2 sequence itself is structured, physically demanding, and — separately from anything about its founder — supported by a genuine and growing body of peer-reviewed research. The credibility question worth asking of any programme today is not "is this the original Bikram lineage," but "does this instructor have verifiable, independent credentials I can check." At YogaFX, for example, Mr. Ian Terry's E-RYT 500 credential and direct 2012–2019 training history with Choudhury are independently verifiable through Yoga Alliance — a check every prospective student should be able to run on any programme they consider, including this one.
FAQ
Who is Bikram Choudhury?
Bikram Choudhury is the Calcutta-born yoga teacher who systematised the 26-posture, 2-breathing-exercise sequence practiced in a heated room, and built it into a global teacher-training franchise beginning in 1970s Beverly Hills. He is also the subject of multiple sexual assault and harassment lawsuits, and was convicted in absentia in California in 2023.
Is Bikram Choudhury still teaching?
He has continued to teach privately in countries outside the United States since leaving in 2016. He has not returned to the US to face the criminal case against him. For his current status as of 2026, see the current state of Bikram yoga.
Did Bikram Choudhury invent the 26 postures?
Not entirely. He trained under Bishnu Ghosh in Calcutta and selected the 26-posture sequence from Ghosh's larger therapeutic Hatha yoga curriculum. His contribution was the specific selection, the heated-room format, and the scripted teaching dialogue — not the postures themselves.
Can I still practice Bikram yoga given the controversy?
Yes. The 2015 US Ninth Circuit ruling confirmed yoga sequences cannot be copyrighted, so any certified instructor can teach it independently of Choudhury. Most studios now teach it as 26 and 2 yoga or Original Hot Yoga, separating the practice from its founder's conduct.
Conclusion
The story of Bikram Choudhury is complex. He introduced the world to a system that has transformed lives. His personal conduct also caused deep harm to many people, and that harm is inseparable from understanding who he was.
Today, Bikram Yoga lives on through teachers and students who deliberately separate the man from the method. If you feel called to this practice, don't let the past stop you — but do choose a programme whose credentials you can independently verify, not one built on borrowed authority from a famous name.
Ready to take the next step?
Join Mr. Ian Terry's Bikram Yoga Teacher Training in Bali — verifiable lineage, taught with structure, honesty, and respect.