Born on April 18, 1956 in Kanpur, India, Cusp-born Poonam Dhillon is one of three children of former Aeronautics Engineer, Amrik Singh, and mom, Gurcharan Kaur. She has a brother, and a sister, Dr. Rishma Pai, who has a medical practice in Bombay. She studied in Carmel Convent High School in Chandigarh.
Poonam became popular after attaining the Miss India '77 Crown. This opened doors for modeling as well as her pretty face being splashed on magazine covers, and also landed her a role in 'Trishul', which was a hit at the box office, with the song pictured on her 'Gapuchi Gapuchi gam gam' continuing to be popular even today. Then came 'Noorie' in 1979, which made a star overnight.
Subsequent releases 'Kaala Patthar', 'Dard', 'Red Rose', 'Biwi O Biwi', 'Yeh To Kamaal Ho Gaya', 'Teri Meharbaniya', 'Karma', 'Ek Chhadar Mailisi', 'Batwara', 'Kasam', 'Sohni Mahiwal', 'Laila' opposite Bollywood bigwigs such as Shashi Kapoor, Rajesh Khanna, Randhir Kapoor, Kamal Hassan, Jackie Shroff, Anil Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor, Sunny Deol, amongst others added to her fame. She has also acted in regional language movies in Bengali, Tamil, and Kannad. Her movie career as a leading lady spanned from 1978 with 'Trishul' through onto 1992 with 'Virodhi'.
In 1988 she fell in love and married film maker, Ashok Thakeria, and subsequently gave birth to a son, Anmol, and a daughter, Paloma. Her marriage ended in a divorce in 1997. Poonam loves to spend time with Anmol, Paloma, and her aunt, who lives in Chandigarh. Her parents have since passed away. Both her children intensely dislike her former involvement with Bollywood, the attention that is forced upon them, and avoid being photographed. She is friendly with Bollywood actresses Padmini Kolhapure, and Rati Agnihotri.
She is involved as a host in Zee TV Africa's 'Chusth Dhrusth' show, acts in a Zee TV serial 'Kitty Party'. She had won an award for her role in the Hindi play 'The Perfect Husband' in 2005. She was also part of the Indian political scene in 2004 when she briefly joined the Congress party. She is also associated with Zeenext.com as a Consulting Editor; was responsible for pioneering the makeup van business.