Yami Gautam

An unknown aunty became instrumental in curving Yami’s career in TV When Yami was in her second year at Punjab University pursuing Law, one day her father’s old friend along with his wife visited Yami’s house. Yami was unaware of the unknown guest. But later it was revealed that her father's friend's wife worked in Mumbai for a television show and she was dazzled by Yami's beauty and asked her mother to give her some of Yami's photographs. Recalling the episode Yami in an interview said her father's friend's wife asked her to enroll herself into some acting workshops as she saw a bright future for her in acting and she had agreed. A few months later she was invited by a production house who had liked her pictures to come down to Mumbai for an audition and the rest is history. Yami joined the film industry. Yami did her debut serial Chand Ke Paar Chalo in 2008 for NDTV and the same year she was signed for Raajkumar Aaryyan, which was also aired on NDTV. Later she did her career’s most popular TV serial Yeh Pyar Na Hoga Kam aired on Colors. She was also seen in Reality Shows like Meethi Choori No. 1 and Kitchen Champion Season 1. Anurag Busu brought her into the advertising world Eminent filmmaker Anurag Basu saw Yami Gautam in the TV serial Yeh Pyar Na Hoga Kam and approached her for the popular face cream Fair & Lovely. This opened a floodgate of commercials and Yami did a few advertisements but for her passion for cinema, she quit advertisements films and went down South to try her luck in regional cinema. Yami made her debut on the big screen with regional cinema Yami Gautam made her debut in the Kannada film Ullasa Utsaha (2009) but the film failed and Yami was left disheartened. Later she tried her luck in a Punjabi film Ek Noor (2011). The film was a hit and thus she began doing regional cinema. Her Telugu film Nuvvila( 2011) also did good business so did her Malayalam film Hero (2012). Her other regional films include Gouravam (Tamil), Yuddham (Telugu), Tamilselvanum Thaniyar Anjalum (Tamil) etc. Before Vicky Donor Yami had many offers but she waited for the right script Yami Gautam informs that even before Vicky Donor she had many offers from Bollywood but she rejected many films as she was not in a hurry and wanted to do only good content films. Besides she was doing advertisements and regional cinema hence she was financially sound. When she got the script of Vicky Donor, she shared it with her parents due to its taboo subject but her parents encouraged her. Recalling how the casting director of Vicky Donor had noticed in one of her advertisements and had invited her for a screen test she had passed successfully and was called again for a second audition with the film director Shoojit Sircar but he was a little apprehensive as she looked typically like a Punjabi and she was to play the role of a Bengali in the film and for the film she learnt the Bengali mannerisms and traits to fit into the role that he had in his mind for her. Though Vicky Donor opened a floodgate of films Yami selected a handful Just as Yami took time to select Vicky Donor, she waited for over two years to sign her next film Total Siyapaa produced by Neeraj Pandey. She said she signed the film as she got the opportunity to work with versatile actors like Anupam Kher and excellent actor-singer Ali Zafar. Since the film was made on a shoestring budget it was able to do average business. Later she did two typical Bollywood commercial entertainers Prabhu Deva's Action Jackson opposite Ajay Devgn and Sriram Raghavan's Badlapur opposite Varun Dhawan. Yami Gautam spell-bounded her critics with Kaabil Yami Gautam took her critics by surprise with her bravo performance in Kaabil in which she played a blind girl with panache. The role required her to do a lot of hard work and learn the nuances of blind people. She practised being blind at her home for several days and many times, she even fell and hurt herself. But she perfected her act as had to enact it in front of the country’s top-notch actor Hrithik Roshan. Recalling her experience with Hrithik she said, “He is truly a genuine actor because more than focusing on his acting he is concerned with the entire scene. Hence he keeps boosting his co-stars by motivating them and being friendly so that the fear factor in a new actor working with him is automatically evaporated.” Praising Hrithik’s vitality in dancing, Yami confided that it was most difficult to match steps with Hrithik but she managed thanks to Hrithik’s understanding with his co-stars.