Bollywood Female Actor
Ameesha Patel is an Indian actress and model who predominantly appears in Hindi films. She made her acting debut in 2000 with the romantic thriller film Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai which became critically and commercially successful and won her several awards including Zee Cine Award for Best Female Debut.
Patel was born in a Gujarati family to Amit and Asha Patel on 9 June 1975. She is the sister of Ashmit Patel and the granddaughter of lawyer-politician Barrister Rajni Patel, who was the Congress Pradesh Committee President of Mumbai. She was born in the Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai and has been a trained Bharatnatyam dancer since the age of five. Her birth-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.
After completing her schooling from Cathedral and John Connon School, Mumbai, Patel moved to the United States to study economics at Tufts University. However, she dropped out after a year to pursue a career in modelling. She returned to India in 1999 and signed a three-film deal with Suneel Darshan. Her debut film, Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai, opposite Hrithik Roshan, was released in 2000 and became a blockbuster. Patel won several awards for her performance, including the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut.
Patel went on to star in a number of successful films, including Gadar: Ek Prem Katha (2001), Humraaz (2002), Yeh Hai Jalwa (2002), Main Hoon Na (2004), Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007) and Race 2 (2013). She has also appeared in a few Telugu films, including Athadu (2005) and Pokiri (2006).
In recent years, Patel has taken a break from acting to focus on her personal life. She married businessman Vikram Bhatt in 2011, but the couple divorced in 2013. She has also been involved in a number of charitable causes, including the Make-A-Wish Foundation and the World Wildlife Fund.
Patel is currently gearing up for the release of her upcoming film, Gadar 2: The Katha Continues, which is a sequel to her 2001 blockbuster Gadar: Ek Prem Katha. The film is set to release in August 2023.