Amisha Patel

Amisha 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.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).

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.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.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.

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 several award ceremonies. Her second release, Badri, marked her entry to the Telugu cinema. She starred opposite Pawan Kalyan and the film was a major success grossing more than RS 120 million in India. 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.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.