Ashmit Patel (born 13 January 1978) is an Indian actor who works in
Hindi
Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...
films. Brother of the actress
Ameesha Patel, he began his career as an assistant director and later progressed to leading roles in
Bollywood
Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". The in ...
productions. He was the second runner-up on the reality show ''
Bigg Boss 4'' (2010–11).
Personal life
Patel is the son of Amit Patel and Asha Patel, and the younger brother of actress and model
Ameesha Patel, and the grandson of the lawyer-politician
Rajni Patel, who was the Congress Pradesh Committee President of Mumbai. His birth name is a blend of the first three letters of his mother's name Asha and the last three letters of his father's name Amit. His father is a
Gujarati while his mother described herself as a "
Sindhi Punjabi" in an interview.
Patel studied at the
Cathedral and John Connon School
The Cathedral and John Connon School is a co-educational private school founded in 1860 and located in Fort, Mumbai, Maharashtra.[University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...](_blank)
in United States, from which he received a bachelor's degree in Business in 2000. Patel is a
Hindu
Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...
and regularly practices
yoga
Yoga (UK: , US: ; 'yoga' ; ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines that originated with its own philosophy in ancient India, aimed at controlling body and mind to attain various salvation goals, as pra ...
. In 2012, he turned to
vegetarianism
Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the Eating, consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects as food, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slau ...
.
In 2005, Patel's visa application was rejected by Pakistani government which, according to him, was because of his intimate scenes with Pakistani actress
Meera in ''
Nazar'' (2005): "It was clearly a message that DON'T kiss our lady".
Relationships
In mid-2000s, Patel was in relationship with his ''Silsiilay'' co-star
Riya Sen
Riya Sen (born Riya Dev Varma; 24 January 1981) is an Indian actress and model born into the royal family of Tripura to Bharat Dev Varma and Moon Moon Sen Sen predominantly appears in Hindi, Bengali, English, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam fi ...
. They broke up in 2006 after their MMS got leaked and created a scandal. Media reports in early 2010s extensively linked Patel with actresses
Veena Malik and
Sara Khan, but he denied any romantic relationships with them. Patel got engaged to
Mahek Chahal in August 2017, but they called off their engagement in 2020.
Career
Patel started his cinematic career as an assistant director and worked with
Vikram Bhatt in the making of his films, ''
Aap Mujhe Achche Lagne Lage'' (2002), ''
Awara Paagal Deewana'' (2002), ''
Raaz'' (2002) and ''
Footpath
A footpath (also pedestrian way, walking trail, nature trail) is a type of thoroughfare that is intended for use only by pedestrians and not other forms of traffic such as Motor vehicle, motorized vehicles, bicycles and horseback, horses. They ...
'' (2003). He made his acting debut with the film ''
Inteha'' directed by Vikram Bhatt. In 2004, he appeared alongside
Mallika Sherawat and
Emraan Hashmi in the thriller ''
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...
'', a Bollywood inspiration of ''
Unfaithful''. The film was his first commercial success.
In 2005, Patel starred in
Soni Razdan's
thriller ''
Nazar'' and
Khalid Mohammed
Khalid Mohamed is an Indian journalist, editor, film critic, screenwriter and film director. He worked for The Times of India for 27 years and then DNA followed by Hindustan Times and was the lead editor for Filmfare magazine. He is the son ...
's multi-starrer ''
Silsiilay''. Both the films were unsuccessful at the box office. In 2006, he also played significant roles in ''
Dil Diya Hai'', ''
Banaras'' and ''
Fight Club
''Fight Club'' is a 1999 American film directed by David Fincher and starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter. It is based on the 1996 novel ''Fight Club (novel), Fight Club'' by Chuck Palahniuk. Norton plays The Narrator (F ...
''. In 2007, he starred in the comedy ''
Kudiyon Ka Hai Zamana'' alongside
Mahima Chaudhary and
Rekha. His next film ''
Toss'' was released in 2009.
Patel featured as one of the finalists in the
fourth season of the Indian television reality show ''
Bigg Boss
''Bigg Boss'' is an Indian reality show franchise based on the Dutch reality show '' Big Brother''. It is produced by Endemol Shine India through JioStar Network. Subsequently, the various versions of the show are made internationally availabl ...
''. He hosted ''Superstud'' on
UTV Bindass and working on two films, Good Night and Future Toh Bright Hai Jee. He hosted
Superdude on
UTV Bindass.
He marked his digital debut with
Ullu App's web-series titled Peshawar,
which is based on
2014 Peshawar school massacre. He played the role of terrorist Abu Shamil, who masterminded the attacks and managed to brainwash the rest of his crew into perpetrating this heinous crime.
Filmography
Assistant director
* ''
Awara Paagal Deewana'' (2002) (second assistant director)
* ''
Aap Mujhe Achche Lagne Lage'' (2002)
* ''
Raaz'' (2002)
* ''
Footpath
A footpath (also pedestrian way, walking trail, nature trail) is a type of thoroughfare that is intended for use only by pedestrians and not other forms of traffic such as Motor vehicle, motorized vehicles, bicycles and horseback, horses. They ...
'' (2003)
Television
Web series
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Patel, Ashmit
Indian male film actors
1978 births
Living people
Gujarati actors
Indian Sindhi people
Male actors from New Delhi
People of Punjabi descent
McCombs School of Business alumni
Sindhi male actors