| Amisha Patel |
Amisha Patel |
| Born |
June 9, 1976 (1976-06-09) (age 32)
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India |
| Other name(s) |
Ameesha Patel |
| Occupation |
Film actress |
| Years active |
2000 – present |
| Spouse(s) |
None |
|
|
Amisha Patel (Hindi: अमीषा पटेल) (born June 9, 1976, also known as Ameesha Patel) is an Indian Bollywood actress. Making her acting debut in the blockbuster Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai (2000), Patel won critical praise for her performance in Gadar: Ek Prem Katha (2001), which became one of the biggest hits in the history of Hindi cinema.1 She would subsequently star in a number of films, most of which proved unsuccessful at the box office. However, her performance in the 2006 film Ankahee, received critical recognition, and she followed it with a supporting role in the hit Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007).
Early life
Amisha Patel is the daughter of Amit Patel and Asha Patel, sister of Ashmit Patel and the granddaughter of the famous lawyer-politician Barrister Rajni Patel who was the Congress Pradesh Committee President of Bombay. She was born in the Breach Candy Hospital in Bombay and is a trained Bharatnatyam dancer since the age of five.2 Her name is a blend of the first three letters of her father’s name Amit and the last three letters of her mother’s name Asha.
She studied at the Cathedral and John Connon High School in Bombay and was head girl for the academic year 1992-1993 before heading overseas to study economics at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts.3 After she graduated, she modeled for several products and then worked in a financial company for Morgan Stanley. After returning to India she joined Satyadev Dubey's theatre group and acted in plays, upon receiving permission from her conservative parents.4
Film career
Patel made her acting debut with Rakesh Roshan’s Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai (2000). The film was the biggest hit of the year, and made her a star overnight, earning her awards for Best Debut at a number of award ceremonies.5 Her second release was a Telugu language film titled Badri. She played the role of Prakash Raj’s pampered sister who falls in love with Pawan Kalyan’s character. 2001 saw her appearing in the cross-border romance, Gadar: Ek Prem Katha, alongside Sunny Deol. The film went on to become the top-grossing film of the year, as well as the biggest hit of the 21st century, earning RS 973 million In India.6 Set during the 1947 Indo-Pakistani conflicts, it featured Patel as Sakina, a Muslim girl who finds refuge in Deol’s house during the riots, and subsequently falls for him. Her performance was praised, and won her the Filmfare Special Performance Award.
These successes were followed by a series of films that flopped at the box-office. In Yeh Zindagi Ka Safar (2001), she played a successful singer who was abandoned by her mother at the time of her birth. In 2002, she had four continuous flops but her last release, Humraaz, performed moderately well at the box office, and her performance earned her a nomination for Filmfare Best Actress Award. The Abbas-Mustan romantic thriller saw her play a negative character for the first time.7 She also starred in Kya Yehi Pyaar Hai, in which she played a career-oriented young woman who rejects the advances of the film's hero. In Aap Mujhe Achche Lagne Lage, she plays the role of Sapna who is caged in protective custody of her own father. She co-starred opposite Hrithik Roshan for the second time in this film. Unlike their successful debuts in Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai, the film proved to be a disappointment and resulted in a critical and commercial failure. In 2005 she starred in Vaada playing the role of Arjun Rampal’s wife who is tracked by her former crazed lover. Her next release was Elaan. The film saw her play a reporter. She later appeared in the historical epic film Mangal Pandey: The Rising where she played the role of a widow who gets rescued from committing Sati by a British man. The film did an average business.
Patel featured in six films in 2006, all of which failed commercially. She first starred in Mere Jeevan Saathi, a production that had been delayed since 2004. She was then seen as a blind girl in Humko Tumse Pyaar Hai, another delayed production since 2003. The film had a very small release and flopped badly. It received mixed reviews while some critics have described it as outdated.8 Ankahee, which saw her playing the role of a wife and a mother who tries to save her marriage life after her husband's extramarital affair, followed. Despite the film's box office failure, her performance received critical praise.9 In Teesri Aankh, she played the role of a mute girl. She learned sign language in order to fit the role.10
After appearing in a series of box office flops during 2002-2006, Amisha finally saw success in 2007 with the super hit movie Bhool Bhulaiyaa where she played the role of a rejected adopted girl opposite Akshay Kumar. She also starred in Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd. where she played the bubbly and vivacious wife of Karan Khanna. In 2008, she had only one release where she appeared in an item number in Kunal Kohli’s Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic in which she co-starred Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukerji. She essayed the cameo role of Khan’s girlfriend and her dumb bimbo act has won her accolades as well as her bikini in the song Lazy Lamhe,11 of which she learnt scuba diving for.12 The film flopped at the box office despite receiving positive reviews from critics.13
As of October 2008, Patel has completed working on two comic films, Run Bhola Run opposite Govinda and Chatur Singh Two Star opposite Sanjay Dutt that are scheduled to release early 2009.
Awards and nominations
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Other Awards
Filmography
References
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