Amisha Patel started her film career with a big bang when two of her earliest films Kaho Na Pyaar Hai and Gadar-Ek Prem Katha hit the bull’s eye at the Box Office. Her amiable charm in KNPH and the emotional histrionics in Gadar were appreciated by all-n-sundry. Everything was going right with her. And then everything went bad. She seemed to be left with nothing but a heap of misfortune. Her acrimonious fallout with her parents, the subsequent live-in relationship with the philandering director Vikram Bhatt and her penchant for getting in verbal-volleys with heroines like Bipasha Basu, Lara Dutta, Kareena Kapoor to name a few earned her the sobriquet that “The girl has lost it”. After a sedate performance in Mangal Pandey, Patel is back again trying to establish her credentials as an actress-of-potential with her weepy act in her beau Bhatt’s autobiographical Ankahee.

She was seen with her grandma Sushila Patel Gokhale at the premiere of Ankahee. Wife of famous politician Rajni Patel, Gokhale got divorced after five years of marriage. Much water has flown since those unpleasant times and according to Amisha she had kept the hardships her grandma went through in her mind while playing the role of a wife who is wronged by her glamour-struck husband.

It may be recalled that much dirty linen was washed in the public during the unsavoury episode of perky Patel girl leaving her parent’s house. While her parents claimed that their daughter was being misled by Vikram Bhatt, the actress kept a studied silence. Recently she opened up when she narrated the ghastly family tales. According to Amisha, a strict control was being kept on her finances. Everything she earned had been wiped out. She wasn’t allowed an ATM card, was made to sign a bunch of blank cheques, was misled that her money was being invested and she was startled to find out that she had income tax liabilities of Rs 1 crore. She had no car, had to pay a monthly rent to her father’s office for the car that she traveled in and at one point of time, her savings account had a handsome sum of Rs 1200/- She goes further to claim that her money was blown up in bad stock market dealings and the two fireplace restaurants in Bandra and Lokhandwala which did disastrously. There was no LIC Policy or Mediclaim for her to fall back upon.

Today she has wizened up and is investing her money by herself through the guidance of a few friends who stood by her during difficult times. Amisha Patel also rubbishes the stories doing the round that she got secretly married to Vikram Bhatt. Currently she is busy with two projects, Aap Ki Khatir and Honeymoon Travles Private Limited.

It is very clear that it’s a new and mature Amisha Patel who is not too eager to take on the world. Instead, she is just taking things step by step. Hope she continues with this streak and also desists from making catty remarks about any-n-every heroine.