Bhumika Chawla returns to Bollywood after nine years
Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; September 27, 2016)

Bhumika Chawla's last Hindi film was the Anil Kapoor produced 2007 biographical drama, Gandhi, My Father. She played Gulab, Mahatma Gandhi's daughter-in-law and the wife of his son Hiralal. Soon after its release, she married long-time boyfriend and yoga guru Bharat Thakur. She continued working in movies down South, but dropped out of the Bollywood radar and returns, almost a decade later, as Sushant Singh Rajput's sister, Jayanti, in Neeraj Pandey's upcoming biopic, M S Dhoni - The Untold Story.

Bhumika insists the break wasn't intentional and she'd signed Jab We Met but the production house changed and so did the cast, from Bobby Deol and her to Bobby and Ayesha Takia to Ayesha and Shahid Kapoor before being made with Kareena Kapoor and Shahid. "I was also offered Juhi Chawla's role in My Brother...Nikhil, but things didn't work out,"she sighs.

Any regrets about losing out on Imtiaz Ali's love story? "No, when I saw Kareena's performance I was certain no one could have played Geet better," asserts Bhumika. There have been constant rumours that her husband didn't want her to work. She laughs, "For a man who himself is a workaholic, having a wife sitting at home chewing his brain is the last thing he'd want." But reportedly, five years ago, there was trouble in paradise? The 38-year-old actress reasons that like every other couple, they had difference of opinions but nothing so serious for them to divorce.

She however admits that six years ago, she hadn't wanted to produce the Telugu film Thakita Thakita and had only agreed because Bharat insisted. "We were living in Hyderabad then and he had some close friends in the industry. He got really excited about this film and as his wife, I stood by him," she says. The film bombed and today she insists she'll never get into something unless she is really sure.

For now the focus is the biopic and she's not worried about moving to sister roles, pointing out that Priyanka Chopra played Ranveer Singh's sister in Dil Dhadakne Do and his wife in Bajirao Mastani. Even Aishwarya Bachchan played Randeep Hooda's sister in Sarbjit but is now romancing Ranbir Kapoor in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. "As long as I'm a part of a good film and the role is worth leaving my two-year-old son Yash back home I'm happy," she says.

Bhumika's still remembered as Salman Khan's Tere Naam girl and bumped into him in Dubai a year-and-a-half ago. "During Tere Naam he was really sweet and patient with me," she reminisces with a smile.

Karthik Pasupulate (BOMBAY TIMES; March 1, 2014)

Actress Bhumika Chawla of Tere Naam fame gave birth to a baby boy recently. About her first reaction on seeing the baby, she says, “I was excited and had this rush of emotions. Both Bharat (Thakur) and I had tears of joy.”

“It’s been a beautiful journey right from pregnancy to becoming a mother. It’s hard to find words to describe the gamut of emotions I’m going through,” she shares, adding, “I guess sleepless nights go hand-in-hand with motherhood. But it’s just the most incredible feeling in the world.”

However, the actress is unsure about who the boy resembles more, her or Bharat. “I don’t know. He’s a combination of both of us, I guess,” says the actress, who is in the process of choosing a name for the newborn. “We will have the official namkaran ceremony in a couple of days. We still haven’t zeroed in on the name,” she explains.

While it’s obvious that her life will revolve around her baby from now on, Bhumika says she will never give up acting. “I’ve never really stopped working. I worked during my pregnancy. Last year, when I was working on April Fool, everyone asked me if this was my comeback film. I never really left to make a comeback. Well, the movie did not release and I guess that’s why people have been asking me the same question,” she says.