Bhumi Pednekar (born July 18, 1989) is an Indian actress who works primarily in Hindi films. She made her film debut as an overweight bride in Yash Raj Films' romantic comedy Dum Laga Ke Haisha (2015), earning her the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut after working as an assistant casting director for six years.
Pednekar rose to prominence in the comedy-dramas Toilet: Ek Prem Katha (2017), Shubh Mangal Saavdhan (2017), Bala (2019), and Pati Patni Aur Woh (2019). (2019). She won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of the septuagenarian sharpshooter Chandro Tomar in Saand Ki Aankh (2019). She has since received praise for her performances in Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare (2020) and Badhaai Do (2022).
Early years
On July 18, 1989, Pednekar was born in Bombay (now Mumbai). She is of Konkani and Haryanvi descent; her father, Satish, was a former Maharashtra home and labour minister, and her mother, Sumitra, worked as an anti-tobacco activist after her husband died of oral cancer. She attended Arya Vidya Mandir in Juhu for her education. Her parents took out a study loan for her to study acting at Whistling Woods International when she was 15, but she was expelled due to poor attendance. She joined Yash Raj Films as an assistant film director and paid off the loan within a year and a half. She later worked for the company for six years under Shanoo Sharma.
Early work and recognition in one's career (2015–2018)
In the Yash Raj Films-produced and Sharat Katariya-directed romantic comedy Dum Laga Ke Haisha, Pednekar made her acting debut as the overweight wife of Ayushmann Khurrana's character (2015) She gained nearly 12 kg of body weight in preparation. "Pednekar steals the film with an assured turn, effortlessly making you care for Sandhya, without ever reducing her to a slobbering, self-pitying caricature," wrote Rajeev Masand. She started losing weight after filming and shared her weight-loss methods and tips on social media. Dum Laga Ke Haisha was a commercial success, winning the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi and Pednekar the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut. She appeared in Y-Films' four-part mini-web series Man's World that year. It had its digital premiere on YouTube and was about gender inequality.
Two years later, Pednekar was cast opposite Akshay Kumar in the satire Toilet: Ek Prem Katha (2017) as a young woman in rural India who insists on the abolition of open defecation. NDTV's Saibal Chatterjee praised her for "flesh[ing] out a refreshingly relatable college topper who becomes the primary catalyst for a mini-revolution" despite his dislike for the story. With a worldwide gross of over 3 billion (US$38 million), it became one of the year's highest-grossing Hindi films and Pednekar's highest-grossing film.
Later that year, her performance in Shubh Mangal Saavdhan, a satire on erectile dysfunction, opposite Khurrana, earned Pednekar her first Filmfare Award nomination for Best Actress. Shubhra Gupta, writing for The Indian Express, said Pednekar "reminds us just how convincing she can be as a real honest-to-goodness young woman in search of love," but lamented that she was being typecast in such roles. Shubh Mangal Saavdhan grossed a total of 700 million rupees (US$8.8 million) worldwide. Pednekar's sole screen appearance in 2018 was in Zoya Akhtar's Netflix anthology film Lust Stories, where she played a maid who has an affair with her boss. Raja Sen, writing for NDTV, thought Akhtar's segment was the best in the anthology, and Pednekar was "hauntingly good" in it.
Ascension to prominence (2019–present)
Sonchiriya, a crime drama directed by Abhishek Chaubey, was Pednekar's first release of 2019. Along with Sushant Singh Rajput and Manoj Bajpayee, she played a young housewife on the run in rural Chambal. She underwent two and a half months of physical training to mimic her character's mannerisms and gait, as well as learning to fire a gun. Rahul Desai of Film Companion praised the subtlety in the film and its performances, and credited Pednekar for "lend[ing] an inevitable sense of womanhood to the silenced". She then starred in Tushar Hiranandani's biographical film Saand Ki Aankh as the septuagenarian sharpshooter Chandro Tomar, opposite Taapsee Pannu, who played her sister-in-law Prakashi Tomar. Pannu and Pednekar spent time with the two women and practised shooting a gun in preparation. She developed skin allergies as a result of filming in the heat while wearing prosthetic makeup. "Pannu and Pednekar are wonderful and spunky and embrace their parts even though their body language and posture is variable," Mint's Udita Jhunjunwala wrote. Both actresses shared the Screen Award and the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress.
Pednekar continued to play headstrong small-town women in Bala and Pati Patni Aur Woh (both 2019). Her third collaboration with Khurrana was in the former, in which she played a dark-skinned woman who faces prejudice because of her skin colour. The casting of a fair-skinned woman in the role sparked controversy, but Pednekar defended herself by saying that an actor should be allowed to play any role. Pati Patni Aur Woh, a remake of the 1978 film of the same name, starred her as a housewife with a philandering husband. Anupama Chopra stated "Bhumi Pednekar's spirited Vedika takes the material to the next level. Bhumi's intelligence saves some of the film's silliest scenes, particularly in the climax." Bala and Pati Patni Aur Woh were both commercially successful, grossing more than 1 billion rupees (US$13 million) worldwide.
Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare, directed by Alankrita Shrivastava and starring Konkona Sen Sharma, premiered at the 24th Busan International Film Festival in 2019 and will be available on Netflix in 2020. According to Scroll.in's Nandini Ramnath, despite doing a "fine job," Pednekar was overshadowed by her co-star Sen Sharma. Despite this, both actresses were nominated for the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress. She then appeared in the comedy-drama Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan and the horror film Bhoot - Part One: The Haunted Ship for brief periods. The same year, Pednekar starred in Durgamati, a remake of the horror film Bhaagamathie that was released on Amazon Prime Video. Rohan Naahar of Hindustan Times gave the film and Pednekar's performance a scathing review.
After a year away from the big screen, Pednekar appeared in the comedy-drama Badhaai Do with Rajkummar Rao as gay people in a lavender marriage (2022). Rachana Dubey of The Times of India praised the film's handling of LGBT themes and found Pednekar's performance to be "sensitive, nuanced, and on point". In Aanand L. Rai's family film Raksha Bandhan, she reteamed with Akshay Kumar. The film was panned for its regressive storytelling and was a box office failure. She then starred alongside Vicky Kaushal and Kiara Advani in Shashank Khaitan's comic thriller Govinda Naam Mera, which was released on Disney+ Hotstar.
Pednekar will reteam with Rajkummar Rao in Anubhav Sinha's thriller Bheed, and will play a police officer in Bhakshak. Pednekar will co-star in two films with Arjun Kapoor: the thriller The Lady Killer and the comedy Meri Patni Ka Remake. She will also co-star with Nawazuddin Siddiqui in Sudhir Mishra's Afwaah.
Public perception
Pednekar is known for playing "women of fortitude with a strong moral fibre, mostly hailing from small towns," according to The Telegraph's Priyanka Roy in 2019. Forbes India included her in their 2018 30 Under 30 list.
In 2019, Pednekar launched the Climate Warrior campaign to raise awareness about environmental protection and global warming. She is also vocal about issues such as pay parity and has spoken out about the gender pay gap in Bollywood, calling it "insulting" and "heartbreaking". In 2020, she collaborated with MTV India on their Nishedh campaign, which aims to raise youth awareness about health issues, including reproductive health. In 2022, she was named Nykaa's brand ambassador.
Pednekar was ranked 40th on The Times of India's list of the Most Desirable Women in 2019, and 39th in 2020.
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Dum Laga Ke Haisha | Sandhya Verma | |
| 2017 | Toilet: Ek Prem Katha | Jaya Joshi | |
| Shubh Mangal Saavdhan | Sugandha Joshi | ||
| 2018 | Lust Stories | Sudha Maheshwari | Zoya Akhtar's segment |
| 2019 | Sonchiriya | Indumati Tomar | |
| Saand Ki Aankh | Chandro Dadi | ||
| Bala | Latika | ||
| Pati Patni Aur Woh | Vedika | ||
| 2020 | Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan | Devika Bhatt | Cameo |
| Bhoot | Sapna Prakashan | Cameo | |
| Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare | Kajal "Kitty" Yadav | ||
| Durgamati | IAS Chanchal Singh Chauhan / Durgamati | ||
| 2022 | Badhaai Do | Suman "Sumi" Singh | |
| Raksha Bandhan | Sapna | ||
| Govinda Naam Mera | Gauri Waghmare | ||
| 2023 | Bheed | TBA | Post-production |
| Bhakshak | TBA | Post-production | |
| The Lady Killer | TBA | Filming | |
| Afwaah | TBA | Filming | |
| Meri Patni Ka Remake | TBA | Filming |
Bhumi Pednekar awards and nominations
| Year | Film | Award | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Dum Laga Ke Haisha | Filmfare Awards | Best Female Debut | Won |
| Producers Guild Film Awards | Best Female Debut | Won | ||
| Screen Awards | Best Female Debut | Won | ||
| Zee Cine Awards | Best Female Debut | Won | ||
| Stardust Awards | Superstar of Tomorrow – Female | Won | ||
| BIG Star Entertainment Awards | Most Entertaining Actor in a Social Role – Female | Won | ||
| International Indian Film Academy Awards | Star Debut of the Year – Female | Won | ||
| 2017 | Toilet: Ek Prem Katha | Zee Cine Awards | Best Actor – Female (Viewer's Choice) | Nominated |
| Best Actor – Female (Jury's Choice) | Nominated | |||
| Shubh Mangal Saavdhan | Screen Awards | Best Actor | Nominated | |
| Filmfare Awards | Best Actress | Nominated | ||
| News18 Reel Movie Awards | Best Actress | Nominated | ||
| International Indian Film Academy Awards | Best Actress | Nominated | ||
| 2020 | Bala | Zee Cine Awards | Best Supporting Actress | Won |
| Saand Ki Aankh | Best Actor – Female (Jury's Choice) | Nominated | ||
| Screen Awards | Best Actress (Critics) | Won | ||
| Filmfare Awards | Best Actress (Critics) | Won | ||
| Sonchiriya | Nominated | |||
| 2021 | Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare | Nominated |
| Bio | |
| Profession | Actress |
| Physical Stats & More | |
| Height (approx.) | in centimeters- 163 cm in meters- 1.63 m in Feet Inches- 5' 4" |
| Weight (approx.) | in Kilograms- 60 Kg in Pounds- 132 lbs |
| Figure Measurements (approx.) | 34-28-36 |
| Eye Colour | Brown |
| Hair Colour | Black |
| Personal Life | |
| Date of Birth | 18 July 1989 |
| Age (as of 2021) | 33 Years |
| Birthplace | Mumbai, Maharashtra, India |
| Zodiac sign | Cancer |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Hometown | Mumbai, Maharashtra, India |
| School | Arya Vidya Mandir School, Juhu, Mumbai |
| College/University | Whistling Woods International Institute of Film, Communication & Media Arts, Mumbai (was expelled from the Institute owing to poor attendance) University of Mumbai |
| Educational Qualification | Bachelor of Commerce (B. Com.) |
| Debut Film | Dum Laga Ke Haisha (2015) |
| Awards, Honours | • Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut for the film Dum Laga Ke Haisha (2016) • Stardust Award for Superstar of Tomorrow- Female (2016) • Dadasaheb Phalke Film Foundation Award for Best Actress for the film Toilet: Ek Prem Katha (2018) • Lokmat Most Stylish Award for Most Stylish Rising Star (2018) • Bhumi Pednekar, along with Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar, was named the Most Beautiful Vegetarian Celebrity of the year in 2021 by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India. |
| Family | Father- Late Satish Mother- Sumitra Sister- Samiksha (Twin-sister, Lawyer) Brother- Not Known |
| Religion | Hinduism |
| Address | Mumbai |
| Hobbies | Reading, Practising Yoga |
| Favorites | |
| Food | Missi Roti, Dal Makhni, Chocolates, Pizza, Bharta |
| Actors | Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan |
| Actress | Priyanka Chopra |
| Film | Raja Hindustani |
| Disney Character | Ariel |
| Color | Red |
| Travel Destination | Ibiza |
| Boys, Affairs and More | |
| Marital Status | Unmarried |
| Affairs/Boyfriends | Not Known |
Some Lesser Known Facts About Bhumi Pednekar
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