Born on April 18, 1962 in Kanpur, India, Cusp-born Poonam Dhillon is
one of three children of former Aeronautics Engineer, Amrik Singh, and
mom, Gurcharan Kaur. She has a brother, and a sister, Dr. Rishma Pai,
who has a medical practice in Bombay. She studied in Carmel Convent
High School in Chandigarh.
Poonam became popular after attaining the Miss India '77 Crown. This
opened doors for modeling as well as her pretty face being splashed on
magazine covers, and also landed her a role in 'Trishul', which was a
hit at the box office, with the song pictured on her 'Gapuchi Gapuchi
gam gam' continuing to be popular even today.
Then came 'Noorie' in 1979, which made a star overnight.Her on-screen
pairing with Rajesh Khanna was very popular with them having four
super-hits 'Dard', 'Nishan', 'Zamana', 'Awam', and one unfortunate box
office dud but critically acclaimed film Redrose.
Subsequent to her debut 'Kaala Patthar', 'Dard', 'Red Rose', 'Biwi O
Biwi', 'Yeh To Kamaal Ho Gaya', 'Teri Meharbaniya', 'Karma', 'Batwara',
'Kasam', 'Sohni Mahiwal" became super-hits. She has also acted in
regional language movies in Bengali, Tamil, and Kannada. Her movie
career as a leading lady spanned from 1978 with 'Trishul'.
In 1988 she fell in love and married film maker, Ashok Thakeria, and
subsequently gave birth to a son, Anmol, and a daughter, Paloma. Her
marriage ended in a divorce in 1997.
Poonam loves to spend time with Anmol, Paloma, and her aunt, who lives
in Chandigarh. Her parents have since passed away. Both her children
intensely dislike her former involvement with Bollywood, the attention
that is forced upon them, and avoid being photographed. She is friendly
with Bollywood actresses Padmini Kolhapure, and Rati Agnihotri.
She is involved as a host in Zee TV Africa's 'Chusth Dhrusth' show,
acts in a Zee TV serial 'Kitty Party'. She had won an award for her
role in the Hindi play 'The Perfect Husband' in 2005. She was also part
of the Indian political scene in 2004 when she briefly joined the
Congress party.
She is also associated with Zeenext.com as a Consulting Editor; was
responsible for pioneering the makeup van business.
