Amisha Patel's photo gallery

Petite and pretty Amisha Patel is as unfilmi as they come. The grand daughter of famous lawyer Rajni Patel, Amisha aced her way through academics winning a gold medal in economics at Tufts university before the acting bug bit and she catapulted to fame with the huge blockbuster Kaho na Pyar Hai with Hritik Roshan.

While there were whispers that it was Hritik who was the showstopper in the film, and Amisha rested on his laurels, she silenced critics by her mind-blowing performance as Sakina in Gadar: Ek Prem Katha. Not only did she look breathtakingly beautiful sans makeup, she carried the very tough role with grace, dignity and sensitivity. The movie ruffled political and religious feathers but went on to become one of the biggest hits in Bollywood cinema.

Amisha’s mother Asha Patel could probably herself give quite a few bollywood actresses a run for their money. Born and raised in London, the only sister among five brothers, Asha is perhaps even more beautiful and doesn’t look like a mother of two kids in their twenties.

Asha Patel says she grew up in an elite pampered atmosphere abroad and met her husband as a teenager while visiting India. For him it was love at first sight, but Asha laughs and says as a Sindhi Punjabi she was not sure that she would fit into a Gujarati family. Today not only has she made a success of a marriage she ventured into at 19, she is with and behind Amisha, every step of the way to help her fulfill her creative potential. In an exclusive with Little India, both mother and daughter talk about what it takes to make it work in a world that is so alien to what they grew up in.

Academics to Acting-quite a switch from being cerebral to being on celluloid! How did that happen?

Asha: Yes Amisha was always an honors student throughout and then went to Tufts University to study bio-genetics, but later switched in her 3rd year to economics. Bio-genetics did not really have much scope in those years in India. Even before she left, Rakesh Roshan who is a family friend, had been telling my husband “let me launch your daughter.” Feroz Khan’s daughter Leila also used to call me and say Asha can you get Amisha back so we can launch her with my brother Fardeen in his debut film. I said, No way, let her graduate. Besides, I do not think she belongs in the film industry. Little was I to know!

Amisha: Yes, I was always academically inclined, but I had learnt bharatnatyam, acted in and choreographed plays while in school. I was also very fascinated by biology and genetics, DNA, chromosome decoding etc and decided to study biogenetics at Tufts. I did realize midway that not only would this require years of studying and then research, there was also no future in India and that coming from a family which had academics and business as its background, majoring in economics was a better choice.

I was very pleasantly surprised by the education system here. In India, all you are taught to do is mug, mug, and mug and spit it all out on the day of the exam. Here they teach you to think for yourself, bring new thoughts, new ideas to the table, even if it goes against what they have been teaching. Subhash Chandra Bose’s grand son was my professor in a lot of my political and international relations classes and as a result I had a first hand information to the freedom struggle and how when Subash Chandra Bose and his colleagues escaped he was a young lad driving the getaway vehicle. I had not learnt about India and India’s freedom struggle in India, the way he taught me at Tufts.

Being exposed to such a multi cultural environment was so mentally and intellectually stimulating; it really helped me grow in so many different ways. I learnt so much about other cultures and in turn taught them about Indian culture.

Asha: Amisha would bring people to India, including her old professor to give them a first hand view of her country. She is very passionate about India and never ever thought about settling down here.

Beauty Tips For Girls At Home

 

Beauty tips for girls at home are numerous. It all begins with skin, having great skin requires lesser effort to put on a picture perfect appearance. In order to maintain the perfect skin, build a perfect routine for it. The skin is the largest organ of the body, keeping it healthy is very important.

Drinking 8 to 10 glasses of water is very important, applying sun block or sun screen when going out is healthy. At night remove the make-up and let the skin breathe, apply a little moisturizer or sometimes none.

The skin is smothered under make up all day at least at night it should be allowed to breathe. Remove the make-up with a scrub and wash it with warm water. Give the skin a day or at least half a day off, once a week. Treating your skin this way gives the face a glowing, healthy look.

Next is the hair, never wash it with hot water. Always use mildly warm water and gently massage. Find a shampoo and conditioner that suits the hair and then stick with it.

Using a different shampoo every now and then causes the hair to become rough and untreated. The different products have different ingredients that may be harsh for the hair, having regularity with hair product give the hair a luscious look.

Everyday beauty rules are wash your eyes with cool water. Never wash your face and hands with hot water, it causes them to become dry. Apply Vaseline on your lips before going to bed it keeps them from being chapped while sleeping.

Make-up products should mostly be of mineral products, these products prevent acne. While removing make-up never splash cold water on the face, but apply a make-up remover or cold cream and gently wipe it off. Beauty tips for girls at home are to not over stress the skin with you new products, sticking to the natural products is more advisable.

Beauty tips for girls at home are numerous. It all begins with skin, having great skin requires lesser effort to put on a picture perfect appearance. In order to maintain the perfect skin, build a perfect routine for it. The skin is the largest organ of the body, keeping it healthy is very important.

Drinking 8 to 10 glasses of water is very important, applying sun block or sun screen when going out is healthy. At night remove the make-up and let the skin breathe, apply a little moisturizer or sometimes none.

The skin is smothered under make up all day at least at night it should be allowed to breathe. Remove the make-up with a scrub and wash it with warm water. Give the skin a day or at least half a day off, once a week. Treating your skin this way gives the face a glowing, healthy look.

Next is the hair, never wash it with hot water. Always use mildly warm water and gently massage. Find a shampoo and conditioner that suits the hair and then stick with it.

Using a different shampoo every now and then causes the hair to become rough and untreated. The different products have different ingredients that may be harsh for the hair, having regularity with hair product give the hair a luscious look.

Everyday beauty rules are wash your eyes with cool water. Never wash your face and hands with hot water, it causes them to become dry. Apply Vaseline on your lips before going to bed it keeps them from being chapped while sleeping.

Make-up products should mostly be of mineral products, these products prevent acne. While removing make-up never splash cold water on the face, but apply a make-up remover or cold cream and gently wipe it off. Beauty tips for girls at home are to not over stress the skin with you new products, sticking to the natural products is more advisable.

Beauty tips for girls at home are numerous. It all begins with skin, having great skin requires lesser effort to put on a picture perfect appearance. In order to maintain the perfect skin, build a perfect routine for it. The skin is the largest organ of the body, keeping it healthy is very important.

Drinking 8 to 10 glasses of water is very important, applying sun block or sun screen when going out is healthy. At night remove the make-up and let the skin breathe, apply a little moisturizer or sometimes none.

The skin is smothered under make up all day at least at night it should be allowed to breathe. 

Remove the make-up with a scrub and wash it with warm water. Give the skin a day or at least half a day off, once a week. Treating your skin this way gives the face a glowing, healthy look.

Next is the hair, never wash it with hot water. Always use mildly warm water and gently massage. Find a shampoo and conditioner that suits the hair and then stick with it.

Using a different shampoo every now and then causes the hair to become rough and untreated. The different products have different ingredients that may be harsh for the hair, having regularity with hair product give the hair a luscious look.

Everyday beauty rules are wash your eyes with cool water. Never wash your face and hands with hot water, it causes them to become dry. Apply Vaseline on your lips before going to bed it keeps them from being chapped while sleeping.

Make-up products should mostly be of mineral products, these products prevent acne. While removing make-up never splash cold water on the face, but apply a make-up remover or cold cream and gently wipe it off. Beauty tips for girls at home are to not over stress the skin with you new products, sticking to the natural products is more advisable.