Amisha Patel 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. 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 Sakeena, 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. IndiaFM's Taran Adarsh concluded "Despite being one-film-old, Amisha Patel deserves full marks for handling the complex role with elegance. She looks the character she is portraying and impresses with a natural performance."
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, became one of the highest grossing films of the year 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. She played the girlfriend of Akshaye Khanna, who marries Bobby Deol to grab his wealth – but, seeing Bobby's honesty, her character surrenders to him. 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 Ketan Mehta's historical epic film Mangal Pandey: The Rising where she played the role of a Bengali 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 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. In Teesri Aankh, she played the role of a mute girl who witnesses a murder. She learned the sign language in order to fit the role. 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. Diganta Guha from Hindustan Times noted "...it's Amisha's performance that remains in your mind. She is dignity personified in the film, playing a woman betrayed in marriage, going all out to save it and in the end choosing her own path."
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. Her performance was generally well received, with one critic noting with one critic noting "Amisha Patel, as the one who loses on her love (Shiney Ahuja) and who has to go through many tests, and over whom the sword of suspicion hangs, is very effective." She also featured in the romantic comedy Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd. part of an ensemble cast that included Boman Irani, Shabana Azmi, Karan Khanna, Abhay Deol, Kay Kay Menon, Minissha Lamba, Sandhya Mridul and Raima Sen. Patel played the role of Khanna's bubbly and vivacious wife and her comic timing in the film was well received.
In 2008, she had only one release where she appeared in an item number in Kunal Kohli's Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic, co-starring alongside Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukerji. She essayed the cameo role of Khan's ditzy girlfriend and her dumb bimbo act had won her accolades as well as her bikini in the song Lazy Lamhe, of which she learned scuba diving for. The film flopped at the box office despite receiving positive reviews from critics. Sonia Chopra from Sify wrote that "Amisha is fabulous—we saw her comic prowess in Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd and she's supremely funny here as well."
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.
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