Amrita Deepak Rao was born on the 7th June 1981, in Mumbai, India. This 5'5" girl was born in the Rao family and speaks Konkani. Her family is known to be well-to-do, with her father being the owner and director of an advertising agency.
She studyied in C.G High School in Mumbai, and later enrolled in Sophia College for a degree in psychology. While studying there, she auditioned for an advertisement for
Fairever Face Cream, and was selected amongst 60 other contestants. She eventually graduated and now has a degree in psychology.
No stranger to cameras and bright lights, she has modeled for approximately 35 advertisements. Amongst other assignments that got her noticed were Hindustan Lever's '
Close-up'
Cadbury's Perk, &
Nestle Bru Coffee. Ken Ghosh approached Amrita for his debut movie Ishq Vishq after seeing her in the perk commercial, where she played a girl next-door awaiting her childhood friend she loves.
Amrita Rao is also a Brand Ambassador for D'Damas Gold Jewellery, Parachute Hair Oil, and Miss Players Apparels.
She began her career as a model, but eventually started acting, with her debut in
Ab Ke Baras (2002). While this first movie went unnoticed, she started being famous when she starred in Ishq Vishk (Ken Ghosh's love-story) (2003) earning her first Filmfare nomination in the Best Female Debut category. She proceeded to gain a lot of fame with films like
Main Hoon Na (2004) and Vivah (2006), her biggest commercial success so far, which propelled her into the highest tier of Bollywood actresses and earned her a Dadasaheb Phalke Academy Award.
So far she has won 6 awards, mostly related to her performances in '
Ishq Vishk' and '
Vivah'.
Barely few movies old, she is already quite well-known for her skilled performances and her dancing talent. Madhuri Dixit went ga-ga over her performance at the Filmfare Awards 2007. Renowned artist
M.F Hussain chose her as his Muse and theme of paintings after
Madhuri Dixit.
She also has a Telegu movie to her credit which turned out a huge box office hit. She is fluent in English, Hindi, Marathi, and Konkani. She is passionate about reading short stories.
She has co-starred with
Shahid Kapur,
Zayed Khan,
Shahrukh Khan,
Vivek Oberoi,
Akshay Khanna, and Mahesh Babu.
A winner of the prestigious
Dada Saheb Phalke Academy Award at the young age of 25, Amrita Rao is all set for her successful innings at Bollywood.