Bikram Yoga (Bikram Choudhury)
'Hot yoga' system created by Bikram Choudhury in the 1970s. Multiple women won civil sexual-assault judgments against him in the 2010s. Choudhury fled to Mexico to evade enforcement; the surviving Bikram Yoga community has fragmented. ESPN '30 for 30' and Netflix's 'Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator' (2019) are major documentaries.
CLCI radar
BITE breakdown
0 — founder convicted in absentia of multiple sexual-assault civil cases; group is now the smaller post-Choudhury Bikram Yoga community.
Profile facts
In context
Bikram Choudhury (born Calcutta, 1944) developed his 26-posture, 105°F sequence from techniques of his teacher Bishnu Charan Ghosh and opened his first US studio in Beverly Hills in 1974 with the help of student Shirley MacLaine. The franchise expanded to roughly 1,650 studios in 40+ countries by 2006 through nine-week teacher-training intensives that built an intense personality cult around Choudhury; author Brigid Delaney and sports journalist Jack McCallum both documented a 'fawning' atmosphere in which students absorbed openly abusive, body-shaming language from Choudhury as part of the training culture.
From 2011 Choudhury pursued copyright litigation (Bikram's Yoga College of India v. Evolation Yoga) claiming exclusive rights to the 26-posture sequence; the Ninth Circuit unanimously rejected the claim in 2015, holding that a sequence of yoga postures is an uncopyrightable 'system' or 'method,' and the US Copyright Office subsequently confirmed that yoga postures cannot be copyrighted in the way Choudhury claimed.
Separately, beginning in 2013 multiple former students filed civil suits alleging sexual harassment, sexual assault, and racial/homophobic discrimination; by January 2014 five women were suing him, including two 2013 suits alleging rape as a civil claim. No criminal charge or conviction resulted from any of these matters. On January 25–26, 2016, a Los Angeles jury awarded his former Head of Legal, Minakshi Jafa-Bodden — who documented Choudhury's conduct toward women, gay people, and Black colleagues during her 2011–13 tenure — $924,500 in compensatory damages and $6.4 million in punitive damages (roughly $7.3 million total), finding he acted with malice, oppression, and fraud; a separate 2016 civil judgment of $6.8 million was entered against him on similar claims. Choudhury returned to India in May 2016 without satisfying these judgments; in May 2017 a Los Angeles judge issued a civil arrest warrant after luxury assets were moved out of the jurisdiction to evade enforcement, and Choudhury has not returned to face US legal process. He has continued teaching internationally — confirmed 2019 trainings in Spain and Mexico, and a reported 2023 plan (amid public outcry) to teach in Vancouver, Canada — despite public criticism. Netflix's 2019 documentary Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator and ESPN's 30 for 30 podcast both cover the allegations in detail; many studios subsequently dropped the 'Bikram' name in favour of generic 'hot yoga' branding.
Key control doctrines
- 26-posture sequence in 105°F heat
- Choudhury as guru-patriarch
- Trademark protection of method
Recovery resources
- The Dream (podcast) — Jane Marie's investigative podcast on MLM cults.
- Anti-MLM Coalition — Ex-distributor advocacy community focused on MLM exit and financial recovery.
- Truth in Advertising (TINA.org) — Consumer-protection watchdog tracking MLM income-claim and product-safety issues.
- ICSA (International Cultic Studies Association) — General referral and cult-aware therapist directory.
- Freedom of Mind Resource Center — Steven Hassan's organisation; BITE-model resources and family-side exit guidance.
See the full curated list at /resources.
Notable public ex-members
- Multiple plaintiffs documented in Netflix film
Legal cases & controversies
- Multiple US sexual-assault civil judgments (2013–17)
- Trademark litigation against ex-affiliates
Evidence by BITE axis
- Multiple sexual-assault civil judgments against founder
- Personality cult during teacher trainings
- Demanding nine-week residential teacher trainings
- Choudhury as guru-patriarch
- Founder fled jurisdiction to evade civil enforcement
- Trademark litigation aggressively pursued against ex-affiliates
- 26-posture sequence in 105°F heat
- Trademark protection of method
- group is now the smaller post-Choudhury Bikram Yoga community
Timeline
- 1972Bikram opens his first US studio in Beverly Hills
- 2013–17Multiple sexual-assault civil suits filed and won
- 2017Choudhury flees to Mexico to evade enforcement
- 2019Netflix documentary releases
Evidence matrix
Structured sources cross-linked to the claims they document. Tiered per the source hierarchy. For free-text citations see the Sources section below.
Sources
- Netflix 'Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator' (2019) search ↗
- ESPN '30 for 30: I Hate Christian Laettner ... and Bikram Choudhury' search ↗
- Multiple California court judgments search ↗
- Bikram Yoga — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bikram_Yoga ↗ Wikipedia
- Bikram Choudhury — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bikram_Choudhury ↗ Wikipedia
- 'He got away with it': how the founder of Bikram yoga built an empire on abuse, The Guardian (2019) — https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/nov/20/bikram-choudhury-yoga-founder-abuse-netflix-documentary open ↗
- Yoga Reconsiders the Role of the Guru in the Age of #MeToo, The New Yorker (2019) — https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/yoga-reconsiders-the-role-of-the-guru-in-the-age-of-metoo open ↗
- #MindinBody - feasibility of vigorous exercise (Bikram yoga versus high intensity interval training) to improve persistent pain in women with a history of trauma: a pilot randomized control trial — BM — https://doi.org/10.1186%2Fs12906-019-2642-1 open ↗
- Bend it like Bikram — https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2006/jun/11/healthandwellbeing.features1 open ↗
- 2013PLoSO...875515C — https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013PLoSO...875515C open ↗
- Adverse Events Associated with Yoga: A Systematic Review of Published Case Reports and Case Series — PLoS ONE (2013) — https://doi.org/10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0075515 open ↗
- A Court Has Ruled That Bikram Choudhury Can't Copyright His Yoga Poses — https://time.com/4067618/bikram-choudhury-yoga-copyright/ open ↗
- Yoga Reconsiders the Role of the Guru in the Age of #MeToo — https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/yoga-reconsiders-the-role-of-the-guru-in-the-age-of-metoo open ↗
- Why Bikram Yoga's founder is in hot water in a new Netflix documentary — https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2019/11/22/bikram-yoga-founder-under-fire-new-netflix-documentary-heres-why/4250553002/ open ↗
- He got away with it': how the founder of Bikram yoga built an empire on abuse — https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/nov/20/bikram-choudhury-yoga-founder-abuse-netflix-documentary open ↗
- Corporate registration for "Bikram Choudhury Yoga, Inc." Number: C2288343 — http://kepler.ss.ca.gov/corpdata/ShowAllList?QueryCorpNumber=C2288343 open ↗
- #MindinBody - feasibility of vigorous exercise (Bikram yoga versus high intensity interval training) to improve persistent pain in women with a history of trauma: a pilot randomized control trial — BM — https://dx.doi.org/10.1186%2Fs12906-019-2642-1 open ↗
- He made a fortune from his trademarked Bikram yoga, but now his empire is in tatters — 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 open ↗
- He said he could do what he wanted': the Scandal that Rocked Bikram Yoga — https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/feb/18/bikram-hot-yoga-scandal-choudhury-what-he-wanted open ↗
- lire en ligne — https://www.lemonde.fr/m-styles/article/2013/03/22/le-yogi-qui-fait-suer-le-monde_1851852_4497319.html open ↗
- Bikram Choudhury Yoga Inc files for bankruptcy in wake of sexual harassment claims — https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/11/11/bikram-choudhury-yoga-inc-files-bankruptcy-wake-sexual-harassment/ open ↗
- After sex scandal, a Bikram yogi asks whether it’s wise to put so much faith in a guru_ Benjamin Shalva — https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2015/04/09/after-sex-scandal-a-bikram-yogi-asks-whether-its-wise-to-put-so-much-faith-in-a-guru/ open ↗
- Yogins and Yoga — Oxford Scholarship Online (2017) — https://doi.org/10.1093%2Foso%2F9780198805687.003.0003 open ↗
- Court: Yoga Guru Bikram Choudhury Stretched Copyright Law Too Far — https://blogs.wsj.com/law/2015/10/08/yoga-guru-stretched-copyright-law-too-far-appeals-court-rules/ open ↗
We cite sources by name and outlet rather than fabricating links. Where a source includes its own URL, the open ↗ link opens it directly; otherwise search ↗runs a Google Scholar query for the cited title — useful for verifying academic sources. For news outlets, search the outlet's own archive.
Change history
Substantive edits logged per the score-updates policy.
- 2026-08-31Body expanded from stub (thin-content programme)
- 2026-05-29Phase 1 Batch J: per-group recovery resources applied via programmatic palette (closest-fit by category + subCategory + score). Palette: Wellness / MLM.
- 2026-05-20Source-density flags derived from existing free-text sources[]: court records. Heuristic auto-flag; subsequent editorial pass will populate structuredSources[] with reliability tiers.
- 2026-05-20Score band scheme migrated from 4 bands to 5 (Minimal 0–5 / Low 6–12 / Moderate 13–20 / High 21–30 / Extreme 31–40). No CLCI value changed; the new Minimal band was carved out of the bottom of the previous Low band.
Key terms in this profile
Relevant hubs
Curated entry points on CLCI Hub for situations connected to this group.
- Start herePick the reading path that matches your situation.
- PatternsDocumented control patterns with linked profiles.
- Financial controlCommon pattern in wellness, MLM, and coaching contexts.
- Online groupsMany wellness and coaching groups operate online-first.
- FamiliesHow families and close friends can engage with high-control members.
- RecoveryIf you have left or are preparing to leave.
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Frequently asked questions
Q.Is Bikram Yoga a cult?
CLCI Hub deliberately avoids the binary label "cult." Instead it places groups on a transparent 0–40 spectrum of documented control using Steven Hassan's BITE model (Behaviour, Information, Thought, Emotional). Bikram Yoga scores 24 out of 40 — "High Control", at high confidence. The score describes documented control patterns, not a judgement of members' sincerity or beliefs; many members do not personally experience the patterns listed.
Q.What is Bikram Yoga's CLCI score?
Bikram Yoga scores 24 out of 40 on the Cult-Like Control Index, which falls in the "High" band. That total is the sum of four BITE axes — Behaviour 7, Information 5, Thought 6, Emotional 6 — plus a signed modifier of +0 for aggravating or mitigating factors.
Q.Why does Bikram Yoga score 24 on the CLCI?
The score reflects publicly documented patterns including: Multiple sexual-assault civil judgments against founder; Founder fled jurisdiction to evade civil enforcement; Personality cult during teacher trainings; Trademark litigation aggressively pursued against ex-affiliates. These map onto the BITE axes of behaviour, information, thought, and emotional control, and a signed modifier of +0 is applied for factors such as financial demands, leadership accountability, and exit costs. Every claim is backed by the citations in the Sources section on this page.
Q.How reliable is the Bikram Yoga rating?
This profile is rated High confidence. High confidence means the score is backed by court records, academic work, and/or sustained investigative journalism. CLCI scores are not fixed — they are revised whenever new public evidence appears, and groups that reform can score lower over time.
Q.Where can I get help regarding Bikram Yoga?
If you or someone you care about is affected by Bikram Yoga, start with the Recovery resources listed on this page. General cult-aware support is available from the International Cultic Studies Association (icsahome.com) and the Freedom of Mind Resource Center (freedomofmind.com). CLCI Hub is an educational resource, not a crisis service — if anyone is in immediate danger, contact local emergency services.
Found something wrong on this profile?
We accept correction requests from anyone — current and former members, researchers, journalists, family members, and the listed organisation. Submissions are reviewed by an editor; we do not auto-publish.