Ashmit Patel

Biography

Ashmit Patel (born 13 January 1978) is an Indian actor who works primarily in Hindi cinema. The younger brother of actress Ameesha Patel, he began his career as an assistant director before transitioning to acting in Bollywood films. Patel gained wider public recognition as the second runner-up on the reality television show Bigg Boss 4 (2010–11).

Personal Life

Ashmit Patel is the son of Amit Patel and Asha Patel and the grandson of lawyer and politician Rajni Patel, who served as the Congress Pradesh Committee President of Mumbai. His name is a combination of the first three letters of his mother’s name and the last three letters of his father’s name. His father is Gujarati, while his mother has described herself as Sindhi Punjabi.

Patel was educated at Cathedral and John Connon School in Mumbai and later attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Business in 2000. A practicing Hindu, he regularly practices yoga and adopted a vegetarian lifestyle in 2012.

In 2005, Patel claimed that his visa application to Pakistan was denied due to intimate scenes he performed with Pakistani actress Meera in the film Nazar (2005).

Relationships

In the mid-2000s, Patel was in a relationship with his Silsiilay co-star Riya Sen; the couple parted ways in 2006 following a widely publicized MMS controversy. He was later linked by the media to actresses Veena Malik and Sara Khan, though he denied any romantic involvement. Patel was engaged to actress Mahek Chahal in August 2017; the engagement was called off in 2020.

Career

Patel began his film career as an assistant director under Vikram Bhatt, working on films such as Aap Mujhe Achche Lagne Lage (2002), Awara Paagal Deewana (2002), Raaz (2002), and Footpath (2003). He made his acting debut in Inteha, directed by Bhatt.

His first commercial success came with the 2004 thriller Murder, co-starring Mallika Sherawat and Emraan Hashmi. In 2005, he appeared in Nazar and the ensemble drama Silsiilay, followed by notable roles in Dil Diya Hai, Banaras, and Fight Club (2006). He later starred in Kudiyon Ka Hai Zamana (2007) and Toss (2009).

Patel was a finalist on Bigg Boss 4 and subsequently hosted the television show Superstud on UTV Bindass. He later made his digital debut with the Ullu web series Peshawar, portraying terrorist Abu Shamil in a narrative inspired by the 2014 Peshawar school massacre.