Bhumi Pednekar

Bhumi Pednekar
Pednekar at the screening of Ki & Ka in March 2016
Born	(1985-07-18) 18 July 1985 (age 31) Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Nationality	Indian
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2015 – present

Bhumi Pednekar is an Indian actress who made her debut with the 2015 film Dum Laga Ke Haisha.

Pednekar was born to a Maharashtrian father and a Haryanvi mother. She is a Mumbai resident and did her schooling from Arya Vidya Mandir in Juhu. She was an assistant casting director for six years under Shanoo Sharma of Yash Raj Films before venturing into acting.

Pednekar played the role of Sandhya Varma, a chubby girl in her debut film, Dum Laga Ke Haisha in 2015. As reported by Daily News and Analysis, she was quoted as saying that in order to play the role of an overweight woman, she gained close to 12 kg despite being overweight before the shooting had commenced. It is also reported that Pednekar has signed a three film deal with Yash Raj Films. Later on even before the film's release, she started losing weight over a few weeks during which she posted the methods and tips of weight losing through social media. She had already lost significant weight before the release of Dum Laga Ke Haisha in order to make the audience relate more with her chubby character, Yash Raj Films instructed her not to talk to the media before the release of the film.

The same year she appeared in Y-Films's mini web-series Man's world. The four-part series raised issues like gender inequality, and premiered on YouTube on 29 September. It also featured actresses like Parineeti Chopra, Kalki Koechlin and Richa Chadda.

Pednekar will be seen next in a movie to be produced by Anand L. Rai and directed by Sameer Sharma which will also feature Ayushmann Khurrana, who was her co-star in her debut movie. She will also be working with Akshay Kumar in Shree Narayan Singh's directorial debut Toilet-Ek Prem Katha which is scheduled for release in June, 2017.