Poonam Dhillon

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Poonam Dhillon was born in a Jat Sikh Punjabi family to Amrik Singh Dhillon and Gurcharan Kaur Dhillon. Her father was a former Aeronautic Engineer and her mother was a school Principal . They lived in Kanpur and she did her schooling in Carmel Convent High School in Chandigarh. She has one sister and one brother . Both of them are doctors. Her sister Dr. Rishma Dhillon Pai is a gynecologist based in Mumbai while her brother is Dr. Baljinder Singh who is a practicing pediatrician. At an early young age of 16 Poonam Dhillon was crowned as Miss Young India.

She fell in love with the film maker Ashok Thakeria and married him in 1988 and has two children one daughter and one son. However the couple divorced in 1997 though she is attached to her two children though they are not in favour of being in the limelight of Bollywood and have managed to stay away. Her close friends in the industry were Padmini Kolhapur and Rati Agnihotri . The three of them joined the film industry around the same time though Padmini Kolhapur was already a known name in the industry with her advent in the films as a child artist as well.

Poonam Dhillon had gained her popularity after she was crowned Miss India in 1977. The doors opened for her in a modeling career as her pretty flawless face was being splashed in almost every popular magazine cover that landed her the debut role in Trishul by Yash Chopra and she became popular for the song picturised on her ‘ Gapuchi Gapuchi gam Gam’ … and continues to be a popular song till date. Dhillon during her film career and tenure in the film industry has acted in over 80 films. She is best known for her role in the 1979 film Noorie with Farooq Sheikh and the songs from this film went on be super hit along with the film that did extremely well at the box office , a tragic love story but Poonam Dhillon create quite a stir as the beautiful pahadi girl from Kashmir and she established herself as the star in the Bollywood . Her onscreen persona is something that her audience and film makers applauded her for giving her the due credit she went on to be one of the most popular actress in the years that she was active in the film industry. Poonam Dhillon has acted in some well known films between the year 1980 to 1987 with Rajesh Khanna and many other top actors during that time. Starting with Red Rose, Dard, Nishaan, Zamana, Awam , Sohni Mahiwal , Samundar, Saveray Wali Gaadi , Karma and Naam in 1986 after which she wasn’t seen as much on the screen. Poonam’s yet another film that is remembered by the public is ‘ Yeh Vaada Raha’ a beautiful love story co-starring with Rishi Kapoor and Tina Munim. The songs and her role became popular and the film did well at the Box office. Followed by a film with Rajesh Khanna again for ‘ Jai Shiv Shankar’ . She went on to do more films after her two debut hit films , subsequently they were Kaala Patthar, Dard, Biwi O Biwi, Yeh to Kamaal Ho Gaya, Teri Meharbaiya, Karma, Batwara, Kasam which were all super hit films. Poonam Dhillon not only acted in the Hindi films but also has starred in regional language films in Bengali, Tamil and Kannada. In 1992 she acted in the film Virodh followed by a cameo role in Judaai as a favour to producer Boney Kapoor . The small role in the film was much noticed by the audience. She appeared in the film Danda in Bengali, Yuddha Kaanda in Kannada and Istham in Telugu after which she kind of exited from the industry for a few years. She returned to the lime light with her roles on the small screen on the Television . She plays the perfect wife role co-starring Sooraj Thapar in the Television soap , “Ek Nayi Pehchaan’ and Pyaar Mein Kabhi Kabhi with Asif Sheikh. She did another television serial called the ‘ U Turn’ which is a remake of a Marathi play.