Poonam Dhillon

The first time Dhillon gained fame was when she got crowned Miss Young India 1978.

Director Yash Chopra noticed her and offered her a role in the film Trishul (1978) where her song "Gapoochi Gapoochi Gum Gum" with Sachin Pilgaonkar became popular. Chopra then gave her the title role in Noorie (1979) opposite Farooq Shaikh, which he produced. The low budget film Noorie shot in Bhaderwah, Kashmir, became a superhit and was a phenomenal success at the box office, partly also for Khayyam's music. For this film, Poonam was nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Actress.

Subsequently, she went on to act in around 90 films in Hindi, including Sohni Mahiwal, Red Rose, Teri Kasam, Dard, Nishana, Yeh Vaada Raha, Samunder, Romance, Kasam, and Sitamgar. She was paired with Rajesh Khanna in six films: Dard, Nishaan, Zamana, Awam, Red Rose (1980 film) and Jai Shiv Shankar. She made a special appearance in Judaai as a favour to producer Boney Kapoor when Juhi Chawla had to drop out.

She also appeared in regional films such as Nyay Danda (Bengali), Yuddha Kaanda (Kannada), Ishtam (Telugu) and Yavarum Nalam (Tamil), 13B: Fear Has a New Address (Hindi).

Dhillon was a contestant on Season 3 of Bigg Boss aired on Colors TV in 2009. She ended up as the second runner-up on the show. Her big comeback on Indian television in a lead role was with the serial Ekk Nayi Pehchaan on Sony TV in 2013 where she played the uneducated yet ideal wife of a rich businessman.

She has been in the Hindi theater production The Perfect Husband, which won the best comedy play award in 2005 and which completed a Golden jubilee run. She then did another play The Perfect Wife co-starring Sooraj Thapar and Pyaar Mein Kabhi Kabhi with Asif Sheikh. She was also seen in a play called U Turn which is the Hindi version of a Marathi play.

Dhillon ventured into the make-up van business, pioneering the concept in the Indian film industry. She runs a make-up van company called "Vanity."