Priyamani

Priyamani
Priyamani at South Indian International Movie Awards 2013
Born	Priya Vasudev Mani Iyer (1984-06-04) June 4, 1984 Palakkad, Kerala, India
Nationality	Indian
Occupation	Actress and model
Years active	2003–present
Parents	Vasudeva Mani Iyer Latha Mani Iyer
Relatives	Vidya Balan (cousin)

Priya Vasudev Mani Iyer (born June 4, 1984), widely known as Priyamani, is an Indian film actress and model, who appears mainly in films made in southern India.

Priyamani was born in a Tamil Brahmin family with roots in Palakkad and grew up in Bangalore. She made her film acting debut in the 2003 Telugu film Evare Atagaadu directed by P Bhanu Shankar. She made her Tamil and Malayalam debuts in 2004, with films Kangalal Kaidhu Sei and Sathyam respectively. She broke into the big league with the 2006 Telugu film Pellaina Kothalo. The film was a sleeper hit and brought instant stardom to the struggling actress.^[1]

In 2007, Priyamani gained widespread recognition for her role as village girl Muththazhagu in the Tamil film Paruthiveeran, receiving National Film Award for Best Actress and Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actress for her performance. During the same year, she achieved commercial success in Telugu cinema with SS Rajamouli directed Yamadonga.^[2] In 2008, Priyamani received further critical acclaim for her role as Malavika in the Malayalam film Thirakkatha, written and directed by Ranjith. Thirakkatha was a biopic of film actress Srividya.^[3] The following year, she made her Kannada film debut in Raam which proved to be a commercial and critical success. Priyamani made her Hindi film debut through Mani Ratnam's bilingual in Tamil and Hindi, titled Raavan and Raavanan respectively. In 2012, her portrayal of conjoined twins in the multilingual film Chaarulatha, based on Thai film Alone, gained critical praise.

Early life

Priyamani was born in Palakkad, Kerala to Vasudeva Mani and Latha Mani a Tamil Brahmin family. She is the granddaughter of Carnatic vocalist Kamala Kailas.^[4] She grew up in Bangalore. After completing her schooling, Priyamani modeled for print advertisements.^[5]

Priyamani is currently pursuing a degree in Bachelor of Arts in psychology. Hindi film actress Vidya Balan is her cousin.^[6][7]

Career

Early career

Priyamani made her debut with Telugu film Evare Atagaadu. She then made her debut in the Malayalam film industry with Sathyam, but this film performed poorly at the box office.^[4] She was signed by Tamil film director and cinematographer Balu Mahendra to act in the 2005 drama Adhu Oru Kana Kaalam. Before release, Balu Mahendra said "Priyamani has come up with an excellent performance in the movie. Her performance would be widely acclaimed."^[8] Adhu Oru Kana Kaalam was critically acclaimed but failed at the box office.^[9] However, she won acclaim for her performance in the film.^[10][11] In 2006, Priyamani starred in the Telugu film Pellaina Kothalo. The film was a super hit and got her 3 Telugu films.^[4][12][13]

2007 - present

Priyamani during the filming of Rakta Charitra

Priyamani managed to prove her acting credentials and commercial appeal with 2007's Paruthiveeran, directed by Ameer Sultan, in which she was co-starred with debutant Karthi Sivakumar. A rural subject which told the story of a notorious young villager in Madurai, the film won critical acclaim and became a surprise box-office blockbuster.^[14][15][16] Priyamani's performance was unanimously praised by the critics.^[17][18] She went on to win the National Film Award,^[19] followed by South Filmfare Award,^[20] Tamil Nadu State Film Award and an award at the Osian's Cinefan Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema.^[21]

She had another commercially successful film in Telugu, in the 2007 film Yamadonga^[22][23][24] and in the Tamil film Malaikottai.^[25][26][27] She again received critical acclaim in 2008 for her role in the Malayalam film Thirakkatha, in which she played a role based on the turbulent real-life story of late film actress Srividya.^[28] She won another Filmfare Award for her performance.^[29] In Tamil, she had a single release in 2008: Thotta.

In 2009 she had two Tamil releases, the masala film Arumugam and the remake of the Malayalam blockbuster Classmates,^[30][31] titled Ninaithale Inikkum.^[32] The former was a commercial failure:^[33][34] Her Kannada debut film Raam was also a commercial success. ^{[35][36][37][38]} All three of her Telugu releases that year, however, (Drona, Mitrudu, Pravarakhyudu) did not do well at the box office.^[39][40][41] In 2010 she acted in the satirical film Pranchiyettan & the Saint which became the longest-running Malayalam film since 2005.^[42] She won a Filmfare nomination for her role as a Mumbai-based interior decorator in the film.

She was subsequently signed by director Mani Ratnam for his bilingual film, titled Raavanan and Raavan in Tamil and Hindi respectively.^[43] Soon after, she was roped in by Bollywood director-producer Ram Gopal Varma for his trilingual film Rakht Charitra. Varma decided to cast her after seeing her National Award-winning performance in Paruthiveeran.^[44] Her Kannada film Only Vishnuvardhana became a blockbuster hit ^[45][46] and later she starred in Anna Bond.^[47] Surprisingly Anna Bond, even after getting bad reviews from critics went on to become the biggest hit of the year making huge money at the box office.^[48] But this super hit film was termed as "The Most Disappointing Kannada Films of 2012" list by Rediff and had got a thumbs down from critics.^[49] She appeared in an item number in the Bollywood film Chennai Express.^[50]

She has completed shooting for a Malayalam film, The True Story and the Telugu film, Chandee, in which she plays Ganga the granddaughter of a freedom fighter, who seeks revenge for the problems her family had to face.^[51] She is currently shooting for the Kannada film Ambareesha.^[52]

Awards

• National Film Award (2006) - Paruthiveeran - Tamil
• Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actress (2006) - Paruthiveeran
• Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Tamil for Paruthi Veeran in 2007
• Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Malayalam for Thirakkatha in 2008
• Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Kannada for Chaarulatha in 2012.

Filmography

References

External links

• Priyamani at the Internet Movie Database

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Priyamani.