Bhawana Somaaya

Bhawana Somaaya
Bhawana Somaaya in 2000
Occupation	film critic, film historian, Editor Screen (2000–2007)
Years active	1978 – present
Website	www.bhawanasomaaya.com

Bhawana Somaaya is a noted Indian film journalist, critic, author and historian. Starting her career as film reporter in 1978, she went to work with several film magazines, through the 1980s and 1990s. Eventually, she remained editor of Screen, a leading film magazine, from 2000 to 2007. She has written over 13 books on history of Hindi cinema and biographies of Bollywood stars, including Salaam Bollywood (2000), The Story So Far (2003) and her trilogy, Amitabh Bachchan – The Legend (1999), Bachchanalia – The Films And Memorabilia of Amitabh Bachchan (2009) and Amitabh Lexicon (2011).

Somaaya(September 7) was born and brought up Mumbai. She is the youngest child amongst her eight siblings.

She did her schooling from Our Lady of Good Counsel High School in Sion, Mumbai and is also trained in Bharatnatyam dance at Vallabh Sangeetalaya in Andheri West.

After her schooling, she did her graduation in Psychology and acquired a degree in L.L.B. (Criminology) from Government Law College, Mumbai, University of Mumbai. She also studied Journalism at K. C. College, Mumbai.

Somaaya started her career as a film journalist and columnist with in 1978, and writing the column, "Casually Speaking" in film weekly, Cinema Journal published by The Free Press Journal. After working in Super magazine (1980–1981), she joined the Movie magazine published by India Book House as an assistant editor and became co-editor in 1985, and worked here till 1988. In 1989, she became the editor of G, a film magazine by Chitralekha Group. This was followed by her tenure as editor of noted film weekly, Screen from 2000 to 2007.

Meanwhile, she has also worked as costume designer, for actress Shabana Azmi in films like Kaamyaab (1984), Bhavna (1984), Aaj Ka M.L.A. Ram Avtar (1984) and Main Azaad Hoon (1989).