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, 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.
Amisha Patel is the daughter of Amit Patel and Asha Patel, sister of Ashmit Patel and the granddaughter of the famous Indian lawyer Rajni Patel. 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 graduated from Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. She then worked for Morgan Stanley. After returning to India she joined Satyadev Dubey's theatre group and began acting in plays, but only after receiving permission from her conservative parents.
Patel made her acting debut with Rakesh Roshan's Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai. 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. 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. 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.
Patel as the muslim girl "Sakina" in Gadar: Ek Prem Katha (2001).
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. 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 dissappointment and resulted in a critical and commercial failure. In 2005 she starred 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. She next starred in Vaada, playing the role of a wife who is chased by her obsessed ex-boyfriend despite her marriage with another man.
Patel as the betrayed wife "Nandita" in Ankahee (2006).
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. 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. In Teesri Aankh, she played the role of a mute girl. She learnt the sign language in order to fit the role.
After continuous 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, Kunal Kohli's Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic in which she co-starred Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukerji, the film flopped. She essayed the part of Khan's girlfriend and her dumb bimbo act has won her accolades as well as her bikini in the song Lazy Lamhe that featured her along with Saif.
As of July 2008, Patel is working on two comic films, one opposite Govinda titled Run Bhola Run, and another opposite Sanjay Dutt titled Chatur Singh Two Star.
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