Early life and background
Amisha Patel is the daughter of Amit Patel and Asha Patel, sister of Ashmit Patel and the granddaughter of the famous lawyer-politician Barrister Rajni Patel who was the Congress Pradesh Committee President of Bombay. She was born in the Breach Candy Hospital in Bombay and is a trained Bharatnatyam dancer since the age of five.[2] Her name is a blend of the first three letters of her father’s name Amit and the last three letters of her mother’s name Asha.
She studied at the Cathedral and John Connon High School in Bombay and was head girl for the academic year 1992-1993 before heading overseas to study economics at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts.
Patel's career began as an economic analyst at Khandwala Securities Limited after graduation. Later on, she received an offer from Morgan Stanley but turned it down. After returning to India she joined Satyadev Dubey's theatre group and acted in plays, upon receiving permission from her conservative parents.

Acting career

Early work and breakthrough (2000-2001) Patel as the muslim girl Sakeena in Gadar: Ek Prem Katha (2001), her biggest commercial success.
Her father's schoolmate, Rakesh Roshan, offered her a position in the film Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai (2000) and Amisha grabbed the opportunity.[3] The role of an exuberant college girl in love, undergoing a tortuous time at losing her lover and rediscovering a more mature relationship gave Patel scope to perform. The film was a smashing success and established Patel as a rising star, earning her awards for Best Debut at a number of award ceremonies.[4] In her second film, the Telugu language drama Badri, she starred opposite Pawan Kalyan. The film was a major success, grossing more than Rs 120 million in India.[5]
2001 saw her appearing in Anil Sharma's controversial cross-border romance, Gadar: Ek Prem Katha, alongside Sunny Deol. Patel signed on much before she shot into the limelight with Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai and was selected among 500 newcomers who auditioned for the film.[6] It went on to become the top-grossing film of the year, as well as the biggest hit of the 21st century, earning Rs 973 million in India.[7] Set during the 1947 Indo-Pakistani conflicts, it featured Patel as Sakeena, a Muslim girl who finds refuge in Deol's house during the riots, and subsequently falls for him. Her performance was praised, and won her the Filmfare Special Performance Award. IndiaFM's Taran Adarsh concluded "Despite being one-film-old, Amisha Patel deserves full marks for handling the complex role with elegance. She looks the character she is portraying and impresses with a natural performance."[8] The film was perceived as being excessively anti-Pakistani.[9]
These successes were followed by a series of films that flopped at the box-office. In Yeh Zindagi Ka Safar (2001), she played a successful singer who was abandoned by her mother at the time of her birth.

Patel with boyfriend Kanav Puri at Dabboo Ratnani's calendar launch in 2009.
In 1999, Patel met Bollywood director Vikram Bhatt on the set of their first movie together, Aap Mujhe Achche Lagne Lage (2002),[19] and they started dating since the film's release. Later, it caused a rift between the Patel and Bhatt families[20] with Amisha running through a financial crisis after her parents used all her hard-earned money for their personal satisfaction causing misunderstandings between Patel and her parents.[21]
In July 2004, Amisha sent a legal notice to her father for mismanaging her accounts and assets amounting to Rs 120 million and demanding the money back.[22] She then appeared in two of Bhatt's films that include Elaan (2005) and his semi-biographic Ankahee (2006) and rumors were spread on March 2006 that the couple were ready to wed.[23]
In January 2008, rumors were spread that the couple broke their five-year relationship. Bhatt confirmed the break-up in a conversation with Mid-Day saying, "Yes I am not denying the fact that the affair is over, but what's the point of going into the past and talking about why and when it happened?"[24] On March 12, 2008, Patel was spotted with London-based businessman Kanav Puri at Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week.[25] In June 2008, she confirmed their relationship as she said in an interview with Mid-Day, "I did not admit to Kanav sooner because he's very special and I did not want to jinx it. It was too precious for me to talk about it to people. It's almost six months now and now I am feeling secure and now I know our relationship is too strong for anything or anyone to come between us."[26] Later, gossip columnists linked Patel to director Kunal Kohli before the release of their film, Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic (2008),[27] and the media also reported that she got married to Puri but she denied these rumors.[