Bhawana Somaaya has been a film critic for more than 40 years. She has contributed columns to all the leading publications. She is the former editor of Screen and has authored several books on cinema that includes biographies of Hema Malini and Amitabh Bachchan.
Her books are a point of reference for students studying cinema at the Whistling Woods, Manipal University and now JNU, Delhi
She has served on the Advisory Panel of CBFC India, and also the Governing Council FTII, Pune. She is Chairperson of Tiger Land India Film Festival, Madhya Pradesh and the Entertainment Editor at 92.7Big FM Radio Channel. She anchors Podcast shows and is also a trained classical dancer.
Letters to Mother, English translation of the Prime Minister’s Saakshi Bhaav was published in 2020.
On Camera Off Camera stories about Bollywood and the dream merchants published in 2021 is her eighteenth book.
Somaaya was conferred with Padma Shri in 2017 and with an honorary doctorate for her extensive writing on cinema by the prestigious Jagran LakeCity University, Bhopal. READ MORE
