Bhumika Chawla

Bhumika Chawla (born Rachna Chawla on 22 August 1978) is an Indian actress. She made her film debut in the Telugu film Yuvakudu (2000) and has since then worked in various Indian film industries and appeared in over thirty films in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Bhojpuri, Punjabi and Malayalam. She is probably best known for her critically acclaimed performances in Kushi, Tere Naam, Missamma, Gandhi, My Father and Sathyabhama.

Early life

Chawla was born in a Punjabi family in New Delhi, India and completed her schooling there. Her father was an Army officer. She moved to Mumbai in 1997 and started her career with Ad films and Hindi music video albums. She appeared in the Zee TV series Hip Hip Hurray.^[1]

Career

Chawla started off her film career in the Telugu film industry, starring in the feature film Yuvakudu (2000) alongside actor Sumanth. Her second release, Kushi (2001), in which she starred opposite Pawan Kalyan was a box office success, winning her the Filmfare Best Actress Award (Telugu) following which she acted in several films in Telugu, including Okkadu (2003) opposite Mahesh Babu and Simhadri (2003) opposite Jr. NTR, which became two of the year's highest grossers in Telugu.^[2] Meanwhile, she made her debut in the Tamil film industry as well, starring in the film Badri (2001) opposite actor Vijay, which was followed by her second Tamil film Roja Kootam (2002).

After a number of critically and commercially successful films in the South, Chawla starred in her first Bollywood film, Tere Naam (2003), alongside Salman Khan. The film was one of the year's highest grossers. It was a critical success and her performance in the film won her many positive notices as well as several nominations for Best Debut at different award ceremonies. She was nominated for her first Filmfare Best Actress Award and won the Best Debut trophy at the Zee Cine Awards ceremony.^[3]

Subsequently, she got to star in a number of Hindi films as Run (2004), a remake of the same-named Tamil film, Dil Ne Jise Apna Kahaa (2004), again opposite Salman Khan, Silsilay (2005) and Dil Jo Bhi Kahey... (2005) alongside Amitabh Bachchan. She returned to Telugu, acting in the films Naa Autograph (2004) (a remake of the Tamil film Autograph) and Jai Chiranjeeva, alongside Chiranjeevi and Sameera Reddy. Whilst Chawla's performance in the former won her accolades and the CineMAA Jury Award for Best Actress, the latter went to become a super hit film.

In 2006, Chawla appeared in the Tamil film Sillunu Oru Kaadhal, alongside real-life couple Surya and Jyothika which became a big hit worldwide, whilst playing a vital role in the Hindi film Family - Ties of Blood, in which she shared screen space with Amitabh Bachchan and Akshay Kumar, and starring in the Telugu fantasy film, Mayabazar. Following which, she acted in the Hindi film Gandhi, My Father as Gulab Gandhi and enacted the title roles in the Telugu films Sathyabhama, in which she played a woman who suffers from Short-term memory loss,^[4] and Anasuya, a crime thriller, and in the Bhojpuri film, Gangotri, a sequel to the successful 2006 Bhojpuri film Ganga, acting again alongside Amitabh Bachchan.

In 2008, she made her debut in the Punjabi film industry, starring in Yaariyan, opposite Gurdas Maan, following which she debuted in Malayalam as well, starring in Bhramaram alongside Mohanlal. Currently, she is working on half-a-dozen films in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi, which include Thangar Bachan's Kalavadiya Pozhudugal opposite Prabhu Deva in Tamil, Yagam alongside Navdeep and Sathyaraj in Telugu and Classmates, a remake of the same-named Malayalam film, in Hindi.

Personal life

Bhumika Chawla married her long-time boyfriend and Yoga teacher Bharat Thakur on 21 October 2007 at Devlali, Nashik in a Gurdwara.^[5] She went regularly to Thakur's courses and is said to have dated him for four years, before eventually marrying him.^[6] Bhumika has two siblings; one brother, who is an army officer, and one sister, both elder to her.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Language	Notes
2000	Yuvakudu	Sindhu	Telugu
2001	Badri	Janaki	Tamil
2001	Khushi	Madhumitha	Telugu	Filmfare Award for Best Actress - Telugu
2001	Snehamante Idera	Yuvrani Padmini	Telugu
2002	Roja Koottam	Mano	Tamil
2002	Vasu	Divya	Telugu
2003	Okkadu	Swapna Reddy	Telugu
2003	Missamma	Meghana	Telugu
2003	Simhadri	Indu	Telugu
2003	Tere Naam	Nirjara Bharadwaj	Hindi	Nominated–Filmfare Award for Best Actress
2003	Aadanthe Ado Type		Telugu	Special appearance
2004	Run	Jhanvi Choudhry	Hindi
2004	Samba	Nandu	Telugu
2004	Naa Autograph	Divya	Telugu
2004	Dil Ne Jise Apna Kahaa	Dhani	Hindi
2005	Silsilay	Zia Rao	Hindi
2005	Dil Jo Bhi Kahey...	Dr. Gayarti Pandey	Hindi
2005	Jai Chiranjeeva	Neelima	Telugu
2006	Sillunu Oru Kaadhal	Ishwarya	Tamil
2006	Family - Ties of Blood	Dr. Kavita	Hindi
2006	Mayabazaar	Anupama	Telugu
2007	Gandhi, My Father	Gulab Gandhi	Hindi
2007	Sathyabhama	Sathyabhama	Telugu	Nandi Special Jury Award
2007	Gangotri	Gangotri	Bhojpuri
2007	Anasuya	Anasuya	Telugu
2008	Swagatham	Vidhya KK	Telugu
2008	Mallepuvvu	Malleshwari Kanneganti (Malli)	Telugu
2008	Yaariyan	Simran	Punjabi
2009	Bhramaram	Jaya	Malayalam
2009	Naa Style Veru	Parvati	Telugu
2009	Amaravathi	Amaravathi	Telugu
2010	Yagam	Nandini	Telugu
2010	Thakita Thakita	Professor	Telugu	also Producer
2010	Collector Gaari Bharya	Indira Gautam	Telugu
2012	Godfather		Kannada	Special Appearance
2013	Buddy	Padma	Malayalam
2013	Kalavadiya Pozhudugal	Jayanthi	Tamil	Delayed
2013	Alivelu Manga	Alivelu Manga	Telugu	Filming
2013	Rathrimazha		Malayalam	Filming
2013	April Fool		Telugu	Filming[7]
2013	Chithirayil Nila Soru		Tamil	Filming