Sunday, July 18, 2010

Pooja (born 25 June 1981 as Pooja Gauthami Umashankar) is an actress who has appeared in Tamil, Sinhalese and Malayalam films. Following a series of successful commercial ventures, Bala's Naan Kadavul saw Pooja's performance as a blind beggar praised by the critics, securing a Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Female Character Artiste in the process.


Biography
Early life
Her mother is a Sri Lankan Sinhalese and her father is Kannadiga. [1] The languages she can speak are Kannada, Tamil, Sinhalese, and English. She went to school and college in Bangalore, Baldwin's and Mount Carmel College respectively. Her fathers name is Uma Shankar who was at Valparai working with Hindustan Unilever Limited as a manager.Her father was not at all interested in film industry but she was attached to it.


Career
Her debut film was Ullam Ketkumae in Tamil with Shaam, Laila, Arya, and Asin Thottumkal which was directed by the late Jeeva. It wasn't released until her second and third films Jay Jay and Attagasam released in 2003 and 2004 respectively. She bagged one of the main roles in Bala's Naan Kadavul by replacing Bhavana and was appreciated by the critics for her fantastic performance.


She became a sensation in Sri Lankan film industry and a household name after the success of Anjalika (2005) and Asai Man Piyambanna (2007). This also earned her the role of broadband ambassador for SLT (Sri Lanka Telecom).


Television
She is one of the judges in the popular reality dance show Aatam Paatam Kondatam opposite dance master Prasanna on Kalaignar TV.




Year Film Role Language Notes
2003 Jay Jay Seema Tamil
2004 Attagasam Priya Tamil
2005 Ullam Ketkumae Irene Tamil
Githan Priya Tamil
Anjalika Anjalika,
Uththara Sinhala Dual role
2006 Pattiyal Sandhya Tamil
Thambi Archana Tamil
Thagapansamy Marikozhundhu Shanmugam Tamil
2007 Pori Uma Tamil
Panthaya Kozhi Shenbagam Malayalam
Asai Mang Piyabanna Ranmalee Sinhala
Oram Po Rani Tamil
Yahaluvo Sinhala
2009 Naan Kadavul Hamshavalli Tamil Winner, Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Female Character Artiste
Winner, Vijay Award for Best Actress
Nominated, Filmfare Best Tamil Actress Award
TN-07 AL 4777 Tamil Guest appearance
2010 Suwanda Denuna Jeewithe Sinhala
Drogi Tamil Filming
Guest appearance

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