Biography
Early life
Born April 18, 1962 in Kanpur, to Amrik Singh Dhillon, an aeronautical engineer in the Indian Armed Forces and Gurcharan Kaur Dhillon, Poonam Dhillon did her schooling from Carmel Convent High School, Chandigarh,India.
Career
She first gained fame when she was crowned the beauty queen title of Femina "Miss Young India" [1] at 16. [2].
Famous director Yash Chopra noticed her and gave her a romantic role in the star-studded hit film Trishul (1978) where the famous song "Gapoochi Gapoochi gum gum" was picturized on her. Enthralled by her performance, Yash Chopra gave her the title role in film Noorie (1979), which he produced. The film became a major hit and earned Poonam a Filmfare nomination as Best Actress.[3] It also catapulted her to the ranks of upcoming heroines in the late seventies and early eighties.
Subsequently she did about 90 films in Hindi like Sohni Mahiwal, Red Rose, Teri Kasam, Dard, Nishana, Yeh Vada Raha, Samunder, Romance, Kasam, Sitamgar, etc.
She did a cameo in the hit film Judai (1996) as a favor to producer Boney Kapoor after Juhi Chawla dropped out.[4]
She also ventured out to do regional films, such as the Bengali film "Nyay Danda," Kannada film "Yudha Kanda" and Telegu film "Ishtam."
She has done Hindi theatre, a super hit comedy play "The Perfect Husband" which won best comedy play award in 2005 and which recently completed Golden Jublee run. Currently is doing a play "The Perfect Wife" co-starring Sooraj Thapar.
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Beyond Films
Later, she ventured into the make-up van business, pioneering the concept in Indian Film industry, now she runs a successful Make-up Van company, "VANITY ".
Poonam Dhillon has been one of the first to start a personal website in 2000. She has been very active with a lot of social causes like Drug awareness, Aids awareness, Family Planning, Organ Donation etc. She also is involved in running an events company.
Personal life
She married film producer Ashok Thakeria in 1988, with whom she has two children, son Anmol and daughter Paloma. The marriage ended in 1997. Her younger sister Dr. Rishma Dhillon-Pai is a gynecologist based in Mumbai and brother Dr. Baljinder Singh Dhillon is pediatrician.
She briefly joined India's Bharatiya Janata Party or BJP in 2004, and campaigned for its contestants during the elections.
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