Poonam Dhillonਪੂਨਮ ਢਿੱਲੋਂ

Early life

Poonam Dhillon was born Poonam Amrik Singh on 18 April 1962 in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, to Amrik Singh Dhillon, an aeronautical engineer in the Indian Armed Forces, and Gurcharan Kaur. The family's service background meant moves across India, and she did much of her schooling at Carmel Convent High School in Chandigarh. She was sixteen when she was crowned Eve's Weekly Miss Young India in 1978 — and the title changed her life within weeks.

Director Yash Chopra noticed the new beauty queen and cast her in Trishul (1978), the star-studded hit in which the song Gapoochi Gapoochi Gum Gum was picturised on her with Sachin Pilgaonkar. Enthralled by her performance, Chopra gave her the title role in Noorie (1979), which he produced.

Career

Noorie became a major hit and earned Poonam a Filmfare nomination for Best Actress, catapulting her into the ranks of Hindi cinema's leading heroines of the late 1970s and early 1980s. She went on to act in around ninety films. Her six films opposite Rajesh Khanna — Red Rose (1980), Dard (1981), Nishaan, Zamana, Awam (1987) and others — were a notable pairing of the era, and she starred in hits like Sohni Mahiwal (1984), Teri Meherbaniyan (1985), Samundar (1986), Saveray Wali Gaadi (1986), Karma (1986), Naam (1986) and Maalamaal (1988).

She also worked in regional cinema — the Bengali Nyay Danda, the Kannada Yudha Kanda and the Telugu Ishtam — and did a cameo in Judaai (1996) as a favour to producer Boney Kapoor. On stage, her comedy play The Perfect Husband won the best comedy play award in 2005 and completed a golden jubilee run, followed by The Perfect Wife with shows in the United States and Dubai.

Major works

Noorie (1979) remains her signature film — the story of a Kashmiri village girl that made her a star at seventeen. Trishul (1978), Sohni Mahiwal, Naam and Karma confirmed her as a mainstream leading lady of the 1980s. On television she participated in Bigg Boss in 2009 and played the lead role of Sharda Modi in Sony TV's Ekk Nayi Pehchaan (2013), winning an Indian Telly Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

Off-screen she became an entrepreneur, pioneering the concept of the film-industry make-up van through her company Vanity, and she was among the first Indian actors to launch a personal website, in 2000. She has been active in social causes including drug awareness, AIDS awareness, family planning and organ donation.

She has remained a visible public figure through television, theatre tours in India and abroad, and her long-running presence at industry events — a career that adapted itself to every new medium Hindi entertainment produced.

Personal life

Dhillon married producer Ashok Thakeria in 1988; the marriage ended in divorce in 1997. They have two children, Paloma and Anmol. She remains active in theatre and television.

Legacy

Poonam Dhillon's career spans the arc of Hindi cinema from the late 1970s to the streaming era — beauty queen to leading lady to theatre star to television lead to entrepreneur. Her longevity, across some ninety films and multiple mediums, makes her one of the most durable actresses of her generation.