Who Is Yami Gautam? Biography, Age, Real Name, Movies, Husband, Family, Career & Latest News
Yami Gautam is an Indian actress who has built a career across television, Hindi cinema and several regional film industries. She first became widely known through television before making a major Bollywood breakthrough with Vicky Donor in 2012.
Over the years, Gautam has moved beyond conventional romantic roles into thrillers, social dramas, comedies, action films and politically themed stories. Her filmography includes Badlapur, Kaabil, Uri: The Surgical Strike, Bala, A Thursday, OMG 2, Article 370 and Haq.
In 2026, Gautam reached the biggest individual milestone of her acting career when she won the National Film Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Article 370. The film also received the National Film Award for Best Feature Film.
As of September 2026, she is preparing for the release of Nayyi Navelli, a fantasy family entertainer scheduled to arrive in theaters on October 16, 2026.
Yami Gautam Age and Birth
Yami Gautam was born on November 28, 1988, in Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh, India. She is 37 years old as of September 2026. She grew up primarily in Chandigarh.
Although she was born into a family connected with the entertainment industry, acting was not initially her planned career. As a young woman, Gautam had considered pursuing a career in the Indian Administrative Service. She later began exploring modeling and acting, eventually moving to Mumbai when she was around 20 to pursue work in the entertainment industry.
Her early years were considerably different from the glamorous image associated with her later career. Gautam has described her upbringing as disciplined and academically focused.
Yami Gautam Real Name
Yami Gautam was born as Yami Gautam and is professionally known by the same name.
After her marriage to filmmaker Aditya Dhar, she began using the name Yami Gautam Dhar publicly.
Unlike some Bollywood performers who adopted substantially different screen names, Gautam did not build her career around a separate stage name.
Yami Gautam Family
Yami Gautam comes from a family with strong connections to Punjabi cinema.
Her father, Mukesh Gautam, is a Punjabi filmmaker and has also held a leadership role with PTC Network. Her mother is Anjali Gautam. Yami has a younger sister, Surilie Gautam, who has worked as an actress in television and Punjabi cinema. She also has a younger brother, Ojas Gautam.
Despite having a filmmaker father, Yami’s initial professional ambitions were not centered entirely on acting. Her decision to enter the industry developed gradually as she became more interested in modeling and performance.
Yami Gautam Education
Gautam completed her schooling in Chandigarh and later enrolled in a law program.
She had originally planned to pursue a more conventional professional career and was interested in the Indian Administrative Service. However, her plans changed when she decided to pursue acting. She left full-time law studies after beginning her entertainment career and later continued her education on a part-time basis.
Her educational background is therefore somewhat different from the typical path associated with actors who enter the film industry immediately after school.
How Yami Gautam Started Her Career
Before becoming a film actress, Yami Gautam worked in television.
Her acting career began with the television series Chand Ke Paar Chalo, which premiered in 2008. She subsequently appeared in shows including Raajkumar Aaryyan and Yeh Pyar Na Hoga Kam.
Television gave Gautam her first sustained exposure to audiences and helped establish her as a young performer. She also appeared in reality and entertainment programs during this period.
Her move from television to films eventually opened a much larger path for her.
Yami Gautam Movie Debut
Yami Gautam made her film debut with the Kannada movie Ullasa Utsaha in 2010.
Her major Hindi-film breakthrough came two years later with Vicky Donor, directed by Shoojit Sircar and produced by John Abraham. Gautam starred opposite Ayushmann Khurrana, with Annu Kapoor and Dolly Ahluwalia also playing important roles.
The film dealt with sperm donation and infertility through a romantic-comedy framework. Its unusual subject matter and commercial success helped distinguish it from many conventional Hindi romantic films of the period.
For Gautam, the movie established her as a promising new Hindi-film actress. She won the Zee Cine Award for Best Female Debut for her performance.
Vicky Donor and Bollywood Breakthrough
Vicky Donor became a defining film for both Yami Gautam and Ayushmann Khurrana.
Gautam played Ashima Roy, a Bengali woman whose relationship with Vicky becomes complicated by the revelations surrounding his sperm-donation work. The performance showed her ability to play a grounded romantic character while handling the film’s unconventional subject matter.
The film was also recognised at the National Film Awards, where it won Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment.
Following Vicky Donor, Gautam appeared in films across different languages and genres as she attempted to establish herself beyond her debut.
Yami Gautam Movies After Vicky Donor
After her breakthrough, Gautam appeared in films including Total Siyapaa, Action Jackson, Badlapur, Sanam Re and Junooniyat.
Her performance in Badlapur in 2015 represented an important shift. Directed by Sriram Raghavan, the dark thriller allowed her to take on a more serious role and placed her in a very different cinematic setting from Vicky Donor.
She followed it with Kaabil in 2017, in which she starred opposite Hrithik Roshan. The film was a revenge drama and gave Gautam another opportunity to work in a mainstream commercial production.
Yami Gautam in Uri: The Surgical Strike
One of the most important films in Gautam’s career was Uri: The Surgical Strike, released in 2019.
Directed by Aditya Dhar, the film starred Vicky Kaushal in the lead role and featured Gautam as intelligence officer Pallavi Sharma.
The movie became a major commercial success and established a professional connection between Gautam and Aditya Dhar that later became personal. The two eventually married in 2021.
Uri also marked an important stage in Gautam’s career because it placed her in a serious action-oriented production rather than a conventional romantic role.
Yami Gautam in Bala
Gautam reunited with Ayushmann Khurrana for Bala in 2019.
Directed by Amar Kaushik, the comedy dealt with issues surrounding premature balding, beauty standards and social expectations. Gautam played Pari Mishra, a successful model and social-media personality.
The film became one of the notable commercial releases of that year and further demonstrated Gautam’s ability to move between mainstream comedy and more serious dramatic material.
Yami Gautam OTT Movies
During the rise of streaming platforms, Gautam expanded her work into digital releases.
Her streaming projects have included:
- Bhoot Police (2021)
- A Thursday (2022)
- Dasvi (2022)
- Chor Nikal Ke Bhaga (2023)
- Lost (2023)
A Thursday was particularly notable because Gautam played a teacher who takes her students hostage, giving her a much darker and more intense central role.
Her OTT work allowed her to experiment with stories that were not necessarily structured as traditional theatrical Bollywood entertainers.
Yami Gautam in OMG 2
Gautam appeared in OMG 2 in 2023 alongside Akshay Kumar and Pankaj Tripathi.
She played Advocate Kamini Maheshwari in the social comedy-drama, which centered on education and questions surrounding sexuality and social attitudes.
The film became another example of Gautam choosing projects built around a social issue rather than relying solely on conventional romance or action.
Article 370 and Yami Gautam’s National Award
Article 370 became the most significant award-winning performance of Yami Gautam’s career.
Released in February 2024, the film starred Gautam as Zooni Haksar, an intelligence officer involved in a fictionalized political and security narrative surrounding events in Jammu and Kashmir.
The film was directed by Aditya Suhas Jambhale and produced by Jyoti Deshpande, Aditya Dhar and Lokesh Dhar.
The subject is politically sensitive, so descriptions of the film’s events and political framing should be understood as the filmmakers’ dramatized treatment rather than a substitute for historical or governmental documentation.
At the 72nd National Film Awards, announced in July 2026, Article 370 won Best Feature Film and Gautam won Best Actress in a Leading Role.
The award was formally presented on September 22, 2026, at the National Film Awards ceremony in Ekta Nagar, Gujarat.
This was Gautam’s first National Film Award.
Yami Gautam in Haq
Gautam followed Article 370 with Haq, released in November 2025.
Directed by Suparn S Varma, the film stars Gautam opposite Emraan Hashmi. She plays Shazia Bano, a fictionalized character inspired by Shah Bano, while Hashmi plays her husband, Abbas Khan.
The story focuses on a woman’s legal fight for financial support after her husband leaves her and remarries. The film draws inspiration from the landmark Shah Bano legal case and explores questions involving family law, women’s rights, faith and the courts.
Because Haq deals with a real and politically sensitive legal history, the film should be understood as a fictionalized dramatic interpretation rather than a documentary account.
The movie was released theatrically on November 7, 2025, and later became available on Netflix in January 2026.
Yami Gautam in Dhurandhar: The Revenge
Gautam also appeared in Dhurandhar: The Revenge, Aditya Dhar’s 2026 spy-action sequel.
Her role is a cameo appearance as Shazia Bano, connecting the character to the fictional world established in the earlier film.
The film was released in March 2026 and became another collaboration between Gautam and her husband, who wrote and directed the movie.
Yami Gautam Husband: Aditya Dhar
Yami Gautam is married to filmmaker Aditya Dhar.
The couple married on June 4, 2021, in a private ceremony in Himachal Pradesh. Their relationship developed after working together on Uri: The Surgical Strike, although the couple largely kept their relationship away from the public spotlight before announcing their marriage.
Dhar later directed and produced projects including Article 370, Dhurandhar and Dhurandhar: The Revenge.
Their professional and personal relationship has therefore become an unusual feature of Gautam’s later career, with the pair collaborating on multiple film projects.
Yami Gautam Son
Yami Gautam and Aditya Dhar welcomed their first child, a son named Vedavid, on May 10, 2024.
The couple announced the birth publicly after the delivery. Dhar later shared a photograph of Gautam with their son, although they initially chose not to reveal the child’s face publicly.
In June 2026, Gautam and Dhar were photographed visiting the Mahakaleshwar temple in Ujjain with Vedavid and members of their family.
Yami Gautam Latest Movie
As of September 2026, Yami Gautam’s most recently released film is Dhurandhar: The Revenge, while her next major theatrical release is Nayyi Navelli.
Nayyi Navelli is scheduled for release on October 16, 2026, during the Dussehra period.
Nayyi Navelli
Nayyi Navelli represents a different direction for Gautam.
Directed by Balaji Mohan and produced by Aanand L Rai and Himanshu Sharma, the film is described as a fantasy family entertainer combining comedy, family drama and Indian folklore.
Gautam plays Mohini, a seemingly perfect new bride whose arrival brings happiness to a chaotic Meerut household. The story takes a supernatural turn when her brother-in-law becomes convinced that she is actually a daayan, or witch.
The film is scheduled to release in cinemas on October 16, 2026.
Its teaser was released in September and introduced Gautam’s character as the mysterious Mohini, setting up the central question of whether she is genuinely supernatural or whether the family’s suspicions have another explanation.
Yami Gautam Career
Yami Gautam’s career has developed through several distinct phases.
She began with television before establishing herself in Hindi cinema through Vicky Donor. Her subsequent work gradually moved into thrillers and mainstream dramas, with Badlapur, Kaabil and Uri: The Surgical Strike expanding her screen profile.
The second half of her career has increasingly featured stories built around social issues, crime, politics, law and strong female characters. A Thursday, OMG 2, Article 370 and Haq are examples of that direction.
Her National Film Award for Article 370 in 2026 marked a new recognition for a career that began on television nearly two decades earlier.
Yami Gautam Awards
Yami Gautam’s major awards and recognitions include:
- National Film Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role: Article 370 (2026)
- Zee Cine Award for Best Female Debut: Vicky Donor
- Screen Award: among her recognised industry honours
- Multiple additional nominations and entertainment-industry awards
Her National Film Award is her most significant national acting honour to date and came for her performance as Zooni Haksar in Article 370.
Yami Gautam Movies List
Some of Yami Gautam’s notable films include:
- Ullasa Utsaha (2010)
- Vicky Donor (2012)
- Total Siyapaa (2014)
- Action Jackson (2014)
- Badlapur (2015)
- Sanam Re (2016)
- Kaabil (2017)
- Batti Gul Meter Chalu (2018)
- Uri: The Surgical Strike (2019)
- Bala (2019)
- Ginny Weds Sunny (2020)
- Bhoot Police (2021)
- A Thursday (2022)
- Dasvi (2022)
- Lost (2023)
- Chor Nikal Ke Bhaga (2023)
- OMG 2 (2023)
- Article 370 (2024)
- Dhoom Dhaam (2025)
- Haq (2025)
- Dhurandhar: The Revenge (2026)
- Nayyi Navelli (2026)
Her filmography also includes work in Kannada and other regional-language productions, particularly during the early part of her career.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Yami Gautam’s age?
Yami Gautam is 37 years old as of September 2026. She was born on November 28, 1988.
What is Yami Gautam’s real name?
Her name is Yami Gautam. After marrying Aditya Dhar, she has also used the name Yami Gautam Dhar.
Where was Yami Gautam born?
She was born in Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh, India, and grew up in Chandigarh.
Who is Yami Gautam’s husband?
Yami Gautam is married to filmmaker Aditya Dhar. They married on June 4, 2021.
Does Yami Gautam have children?
Yes. Yami Gautam and Aditya Dhar have a son named Vedavid, born on May 10, 2024.
What was Yami Gautam’s first movie?
Her first film was the Kannada movie Ullasa Utsaha in 2010. Her major Hindi-film debut was Vicky Donor in 2012.
Which movie made Yami Gautam famous?
Vicky Donor was her major Hindi-film breakthrough.
Did Yami Gautam win a National Film Award?
Yes. She won the National Film Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Article 370 in 2026.
What is Yami Gautam’s upcoming movie?
Her upcoming theatrical release is Nayyi Navelli, directed by Balaji Mohan and scheduled for October 16, 2026.
Final Takeaway
Yami Gautam’s career has stretched from television serials to mainstream Bollywood and eventually to award-winning dramatic performances.
Her breakthrough came with Vicky Donor, but films such as Badlapur, Kaabil, Uri: The Surgical Strike, A Thursday, OMG 2, Article 370 and Haq have shown a broader range than her early romantic roles suggested.
The defining moment of 2026 came when she won the National Film Award for Best Actress for Article 370. With Nayyi Navelli scheduled for October 16, 2026, Gautam is now moving into another genre, this time a fantasy family entertainer with elements of horror and folklore.