Yami Gautam

2.1. Childhood and education

Yami Gautam was born into a Hindu Brahmin family in Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh, India, and was primarily raised in Chandigarh. She completed her regular schooling and subsequently enrolled in college to pursue a graduate degree in law honors. During her youth, she harbored aspirations of joining the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), a highly competitive civil service in India. However, at the age of 20, she made a pivotal decision to change her career path and venture into acting. This led her to leave her full-time law studies, although she later completed her graduation part-time from Mumbai. Beyond her professional life, Gautam Dhar is known for her fondness for reading, interior decoration, and listening to music.

2.2. Family and early aspirations

Yami Gautam's family has strong ties to the film industry. Her father, Mukesh Gautam, is a notable Punjabi film director and serves as the Vice President of the PTC Network. Her mother is Anjali Gautam. She has a younger sister, Surilie Gautam, who also made her acting debut in the Punjabi film industry with the movie Power Cut. Additionally, Yami has a younger brother named Ojas Gautam. Despite growing up in a family connected to cinema, Yami's initial ambition was to become an IAS officer, a high-ranking position in the Indian civil service, reflecting an early inclination towards public service before her eventual pivot to a career in entertainment.

3.1. Television debut and early work (2008-2010)

At the age of 20, Yami Gautam made the decision to move to Mumbai to pursue a career in acting. She made her television debut in 2008 with the series Chand Ke Paar Chalo. She followed this with a lead role in Raajkumar Aaryyan. Her most notable role in television came with Yeh Pyar Na Hoga Kam, which aired on Colors from 2009 to 2010, significantly increasing her recognition. Additionally, Gautam participated in the reality shows Meethi Choori No 1 and Kitchen Champion Season 1 in 2010, further expanding her presence on television. She also appeared in a 2010 episode of the popular Indian TV series CID, specifically the episode "Kabarwali Ladki."

3.2. Film debut and breakthrough (2009-2018)

Gautam made her film acting debut in 2009 with the Kannada-language film Ullasa Utsaha. Her significant Bollywood debut came in 2012 with Shoojit Sircar's romantic comedy Vicky Donor. In this film, co-starring with debutante Ayushmann Khurrana, Annu Kapoor, and Dolly Ahluwalia, Gautam played Ashima Roy, a Bengali woman who falls in love with the titular Punjabi character and later learns about his past after their marriage. The film, which also marked Bollywood actor John Abraham's production debut, received widespread positive reviews from critics and achieved major commercial success, grossing over 645.00 M INR worldwide. For her performance, Gautam received critical acclaim, winning the Zee Cine Award for Best Female Debut (tied with Ileana D'Cruz for Barfi!) and a nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut at the 58th Filmfare Awards.

After a two-year hiatus from Hindi films, Gautam returned in 2014 with two releases. The first was Eeshwar Nivas's romantic comedy Total Siyapaa, where she starred alongside Ali Zafar, Anupam Kher, and Kirron Kher, playing the love interest of Zafar's character. Her second film that year was Prabhu Deva's action thriller Action Jackson, where she again played the protagonist's love interest. Both Total Siyapaa and Action Jackson performed poorly at the box office.

In 2015, Gautam appeared in Sriram Raghavan's action thriller Badlapur, alongside Varun Dhawan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, portraying Dhawan's character's wife. The film was both a critical and commercial success, earning over 770.00 M INR worldwide, and Gautam's performance garnered praise. She also appeared in the Telugu film Courier Boy Kalyan.

The year 2016 saw Gautam starring in two romantic films with Pulkit Samrat: Divya Khosla Kumar's Sanam Re and Vivek Agnihotri's Junooniyat. In Sanam Re, she portrayed a high-school girl in love with Samrat's character, while in Junooniyat, she played a Punjabi girl who falls for an army officer. Both films, however, were critical and commercial failures. She also appeared in the Tamil film Tamilselvanum Thaniyar Anjalum.

In 2017, Gautam collaborated with Hrithik Roshan in Sanjay Gupta's revenge thriller Kaabil, which tells the story of a blind man seeking revenge for the rape of his blind wife. The film and her performance received mixed-to-positive reviews, and the film achieved financial success, grossing over 1.96 B INR worldwide. Later in 2017, she had a brief role in Ram Gopal Varma's political thriller Sarkar 3, which was part of the Sarkar franchise, starring alongside Amitabh Bachchan, Jackie Shroff, Manoj Bajpayee, and Amit Sadh. Sarkar 3 did not perform well at the box office. Gautam's next release was the 2018 social problem drama Batti Gul Meter Chalu, directed by Shree Narayan Singh, in which she played a lawyer alongside Shahid Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor, and Divyendu Sharma.

3.3. Continued success and recent projects (2019-present)

Gautam's career saw a significant breakthrough in 2019 with her role in Aditya Dhar's military action thriller Uri: The Surgical Strike, where she starred opposite Vicky Kaushal. The film, based on the 2016 Uri attack, featured Gautam as Pallavi Sharma, an intelligence officer. Upon its release, the film received critical acclaim, and Gautam's performance was also widely praised. She then reunited with Ayushmann Khurrana for Amar Kaushik's comedy-drama Bala, a satire exploring themes of physical attractiveness. The film garnered positive reviews, and Gautam received unanimous acclaim for her portrayal of Pari Mishra, a whimsical influencer and part-time model from Lucknow. Rediff.com's Sukanya Verma noted Gautam's performance as "part delirious, part deluded," with a "gentle unhinged air" that made her character both fascinating and heartbreaking, leading to her inclusion in the publication's list of Best Bollywood Actresses in 2019. Both Uri: The Surgical Strike and Bala were significant commercial successes, with Bala earning over 3.42 B INR worldwide, making it the third-highest-grossing Hindi film of 2019.

In 2020, Gautam appeared in the romantic comedy Ginny Weds Sunny opposite Vikrant Massey, directed by debutant Puneet Khanna. The film was released directly on Netflix due to the COVID-19 pandemic, receiving mixed reviews from critics. In 2021, Gautam starred in the horror-comedy Bhoot Police, co-starring Saif Ali Khan, Arjun Kapoor, and Jacqueline Fernandez, which was considered unremarkable. She concluded the year with a cameo appearance in the Punjabi comedy Shava Ni Girdhari Lal.

Her first film of 2022 was Behzad Khambata's thriller A Thursday, in which she starred as Naina Jaiswal, a troubled playschool teacher who takes her students hostage. Released on Disney+ Hotstar, the film received mixed-to-positive reviews, with Gautam Dhar (credited under her married name) earning widespread acclaim for her performance. Sneha Benganl of CNBC TV18 described her portrayal as a career-best, highlighting her ability to be "equal parts dangerous and vulnerable, daring and conflicted." Gautam Dhar's second film of 2022 was Tushar Jalota's social comedy Dasvi, alongside Abhishek Bachchan and Nimrat Kaur. She played Jyoti Deswal, an IPS officer at the jail where Chief Minister Ganga Ram Chaudhary was imprisoned. The film, which premiered on Netflix and JioCinema, received generally mixed reviews. Gautam Dhar subsequently appeared as Vidhi Sahani, a crime-journalist searching for a missing man, in Aniruddha Roy Chowdhary's social drama Lost. The film premiered at the Chicago South Asian Film Festival and later on ZEE5. Zinia Bandyopadhyay of India Today praised Gautam Dhar for anchoring her character "with earnestness" and proving her "mettle again."

In 2023, she starred in the heist thriller Chor Nikal Ke Bhaga, where she played Neha Grover, a flight attendant attempting to steal diamonds on a hijacked aircraft with her boyfriend, played by Sunny Kaushal. The film premiered on Netflix to positive reviews, with Gautam Dhar's performance being particularly lauded. Film critic Saibal Chatterjee noted that she was "the one who powers the film along," especially during challenging moments, while Monika Rawal Kukreja of Hindustan Times stated that Gautam Dhar "truly nails her part and shines in every frame she appears in," commending her confident portrayal of a multi-layered character. Gautam Dhar then starred as a lawyer in OMG 2 (2023), a satire about sex education in India, alongside Akshay Kumar and Pankaj Tripathi. The film became one of the highest-grossing Hindi films of the year, and her performance earned her a nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress.

In 2024, Gautam Dhar collaborated with her husband Aditya Dhar on his political action thriller, Article 370. The film is set against the backdrop of the revocation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution in Jammu and Kashmir, with Gautam Dhar portraying an intelligence officer working to abrogate the law. She described this role as "one of the most important in my career." Despite some critical ambivalence regarding the film's "jingoistic nature," Gautam Dhar's performance received high praise. Monika Rawal Kukreja of Hindustan Times called her "terrific," noting that her "no-nonsense demeanour lends a gravitas to the film and she lets her action and intense dialogue delivery do most of the talking." The film was a commercial success, becoming the tenth highest-grossing Hindi film of 2024. Looking ahead, Gautam Dhar is set to appear in Dhoom Dhaam (2025) with Pratik Gandhi, playing a newly-wed couple on the run from the police. Critics from WION remarked that while the role was a variation of her previous characters, she and Gandhi succeeded in elevating the script of an otherwise predictable film.

6.1. Films

6.2. Television