Yami Gautam

Early television and film career (2008–2018)

Gautam was 20 when she moved to Mumbai to pursue a career in movies.^[21] She made her television debut in Chand Ke Paar Chalo.^[22][23] She continued to play the lead in Raajkumar Aaryyan. Following this, she played her most notable role in television in, Yeh Pyar Na Hoga Kam,^[24] which aired on Colors.^[25] She has also participated in reality shows Meethi Choori No 1 and Kitchen Champion Season 1.^[26]

After making her acting debut as the lead in the 2010 Kannada-language film Ullasa Utsaha, Gautam made her Bollywood debut in a leading role in Shoojit Sircar's romantic comedy Vicky Donor (2012). Co-starring opposite debutante Ayushmann Khurrana, Annu Kapoor, and Dolly Ahluwalia, she portrayed Ashima Roy, a Bengali woman who falls in love with the titular character, a Punjabi lad from the Arora family, and gets to know about his past after their marriage.^[27] The film, which marked Bollywood actor John Abraham's production debut, received positive reviews from critics and proved to be a major commercial success as one of the highest-grossing films of the year with worldwide grossing of ₹645 million (US$3.9 million). For her debut performance, Gautam received critical acclaim as well as several awards and nominations, including the award for Best Female Debut (tied with Ileana D'Cruz for Barfi!) at the Zee Cine Awards, and a nomination under the same category at the 58th Filmfare Awards.^[28] After a two-year absence from Bollywood films, Gautam returned in 2014 and appeared in two films, the first of which was Eeshwar Nivas' romantic comedy film Total Siyappa, co-starring Ali Zafar, Anupam Kher, and Kirron Kher, in which she played the love interest of Zafar's character.^[29] Gautam's second appearance that year was in Prabhu Deva's action thriller Action Jackson; she portrayed the love interest of the protagonist. Both Total Siyappa and Action Jackson underperformed at the box office.^[30][31][32] In 2015, Gautam appeared alongside Varun Dhawan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui in Sriram Raghavan's action thriller Badlapur.^[33] The film emerged as a critical and commercial success, earning over ₹770 million (US$11 million) worldwide, with Gautam's performance receiving praise.^[34]

In 2016, Gautam played Pulkit Samrat's love interest in two romances—Divya Khosla Kumar's Sanam Re and Vivek Agnihotri's Junooniyat.^[35][36] In the former, she played a high-school girl who falls in love with Samrat's character, and in the latter, she portrayed a Punjabi girl who falls in love with an army officer.^[37][38] Both Sanam Re and Junooniyat were critical and commercial failures.^[39] The following year, Gautam collaborated with Hrithik Roshan on Sanjay Gupta's revengeful romantic thriller Kaabil (2017), which tells the story of a blind man who avenges the rape of his blind wife. The film, as well as her performance, received mixed-to-positive reviews, and the film emerged as a financial success, earning ₹ 1.96 billion (US$28 million) worldwide. Later in 2017, Gautam featured briefly in Ram Gopal Varma's political thriller Sarkar 3, the third instalment of Varma's Sarkar franchise, alongside Amitabh Bachchan, Jackie Shroff, Manoj Bajpayee, and Amit Sadh. Sarkar 3 failed to do well at the box office. Gautam's next release was the Shree Narayan Singh directed social problem drama Batti Gul Meter Chalu (2018), in which she played a lawyer alongside Shahid Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor, and Divyendu Sharma.^[40][41][42]

Established actress (2019–present)

Gautam's breakthrough role was in 2019 when she appeared in Aditya Dhar's military action thriller Uri: The Surgical Strike opposite Vicky Kaushal.^[43] Based on the 2016 Uri attack, Gautam portrayed Pallavi Sharma, an intelligence officer. It was a critical and commercial success. The Indian Express's Shubhra Gupta felt that Gautam's female character stood out among those in the film that were there only to "to support the hero".^[44] She then reunited with Khurrana for Amar Kaushik's comedy drama Bala, a satire on physical attractiveness. The film opened to positive reviews, with Gautam unanimously receiving acclaim for her portrayal of Pari Mishra, a ditsy influencer and a part-time model.^[45] Rediff.com's Sukanya Verma found Gautam "part delirious, part deluded" and felt "there's a gentle unhinged air to her compulsive, sincere artificiality that makes her both fascinating and heartbreaking",^[46] and featured her in the publication's list of the Best Bollywood Actresses in 2019.^[47] Both Uri: The Surgical Strike and Bala emerged as commercial successes at the box-office, with the former earning over ₹3.42 billion (US$36 million) worldwide to rank as the fourth-highest grossing Hindi film of the year.^[48]

In 2020, she appeared in the romantic comedy Ginny Weds Sunny opposite Vikrant Massey, directed by debutant Puneet Khanna. The film was directly released on to Netflix instead of a theatrical release due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[49] Critics considered the chemistry between Gautam and Massey the highlight of an otherwise monotonous film.^[50][51][52] In 2021, Gautam starred in the unremarkable horror comedy Bhoot Police, co-starring Saif Ali Khan, Arjun Kapoor, and Jacqueline Fernandez.^[53] She ended the year in a brief role (billed as a special appearance) in the Punjabi comedy Shava Ni Girdhari Lal.^[54][55]

In her first film of 2022, she appeared as a troubled playschool teacher (as Yami Gautam Dhar) who holds her students hostage in the thriller film A Thursday.^[56] Upon release on to Disney+ Hotstar, it was met with positive critical reception, with Gautam Dhar receiving unanimous acclaim for her performance.^[57] Sneha Benganl of CNBC TV18 deemed her performance a career-best and felt she was "equal parts dangerous and vulnerable, daring and conflicted".^[58] Gautam Dhar's second film of the year was in the social comedy Dasvi, alongside Abhishek Bachchan and Nimrat Kaur. She was cast in the role of Jyoti Deswal, an IPS officer in the jail where Chief Minister Ganga Ram Chaudhary was imprisoned. The film premiered directly on to Netflix and JioCinema to ambivalent reception.^[59][60][61] Gautam Dhar next appeared as Vidhi Sahani, a crime-journalist in search of a missing man in Aniruddha Roy Chowdhary’s social drama Lost. The film had its world premiere at the Chicago South Asian Film Festival^[62] and released on ZEE5 the following year. Zinia Bandyopadhyay of India Today felt Gautam Dhar "anchors" her character "with earnestness" and "proves her mettle again".^[63]

In 2023, she appeared in the heist thriller Chor Nikal Ke Bhaga, in which she played a flight attendant who attempts to steal diamonds on a hijacked aircraft with her boyfriend (played by Sunny Kaushal). The film was premiered on Netflix to positive reviews, with praised directed to Gautam Dhar's performance. While film critic Saibal Chatterjee felt Gautam Dhar was "the one who powers the film along especially when the ride turns somewhat bumpy",^[64] Monika Rawal Kukreja of Hindustan Times wrote, that she "truly nails her part and shines in every frame she appears in."^[65] Gautam Dhar next starred as a lawyer in OMG 2, a satire about sex education in India, alongside Akshay Kumar and Pankaj Tripathi.^[66] It emerged as one of the highest-grossing Hindi films of the year.^[67] Her performance in the film earned her a nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress.^[68] In 2024, Gautam Dhar collaborated with her husband on the political action thriller Article 370.^[69] Set against the backdrop of the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir's special status under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, the film featured Gautam Dhar as an intelligence officer working to facilitate the abrogation.^[70][71] She described the project as "one of the most important in my career".^[72] Although the film received mixed reviews for its overtly jingoistic tone, critics consistently praised Gautam Dhar's performance.^[73][74][75] Monika Rawal Kukreja noted 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".^[76] It was a commercial success, emerging as one of the highest-grossing Hindi films of 2024.^[77]

In Netflix's Dhoom Dhaam (2025), Gautam Dhar and Pratik Gandhi played a newly-wed couple on the run from the police.^[78] WION's Shomini Sen felt that the character was simply a variation of those Gautam Dhar had portrayed in Ginny Weds Sunny and Article 370, but was appreciative of her and Gandhi for elevating the script of an otherwise predictable film.^[79] She next starred opposite Emraan Hashmi in Haq, a courtroom drama inspired by the landmark Mohd. Ahmed Khan v. Shah Bano Begum case.^[80] Gautam Dhar found that the character's emotional depth was unlike anything she had portrayed before.^[81] The Hindu's Anuj Kumar wrote that she delivered a "career-defining performance" that combined "emotional depth and dignity [to] masterfully bring the character to life".^[82] The film achieved high viewership on Netflix despite its failure commercially.^[83][84]

Films

Music videos

Television