Tamannaah

Tamannaah Bhatia (born 21 December 1989[1]) is an Indian actress,[2] who predominantly appears in Telugu and Tamil films. She has also appeared in a few Hindi films. Through her successful career, Tamannaah has become one of the most popular celebrities in South India. In addition to acting, she also participates in stage shows and is a prominent celebrity endorser for brands and products.

In 2005, she made her acting debut in the Bollywood film, Chand Sa Roshan Chehra and appeared in Abhijeet Sawant album song "Lafzon main" from the album Aapka Abhijeet which was also released in the year 2005, before working in Telugu cinema and Tamil cinema. In same year Tamannaah made her Telugu film debut in Sri, and in the following next year she appeared in her first Tamil movie, Kedi. In 2007, she starred in two college-life-based drama films, Happy Days in Telugu and Kalloori in Tamil.

Her projects include the Tamil films Ayan (2009), Paiyaa (2010) and Siruthai (2011). She returned to Telugu cinema in 2011 with the romance film 100% Love (2011). Other films include Racha (2012), Cameraman Ganga Tho Rambabu (2012), Thadaka (2013), Aagadu (2014), Baahubali: The Beginning and Bengal Tiger (2015). She thus established herself as one of the leading contemporary actresses in Telugu.

Early life[edit]

Tamannaah Bhatia was born on 21 December 1989 in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, to Santhosh and Rajani Bhatia and she has an elder brother, Anand. Her father is a diamond merchant. She is of Sindhi descent.[2] She did her schooling in Maneckji Cooper Educational Trust School, Juhu, Mumbai. She later changed her screen name for numerological reasons, varying it slightly to Tamannaah.[3][4] She has been working since the age of 13, when she was spotted at her school’s annual day function and offered a lead role, which she took up, and then also became a part of Mumbai's Prithvi Theatre for a year. She also appeared in Abhijeet Sawant's album song "Lafzo Mein" from the album Aapka Abhijeet which was released in the year 2005.[5]

Career

Tamannaah made her acting debut in 2005 at the age of 15, playing the female lead in Chand Sa Roshan Chehra which was a commercial failure at the box office.[6] The same year, she made her debut in Telugu cinema with Sri and in Tamil cinema with Kedi in 2006. Though both of them were commercial failures,[6] her performance in the latter fetched her critical acclaim. IndiaGlitz in ints review called Tamannaah as the "real scene-stealer" and stated that she "walks away with all honors", adding that her characters have shades of the characters played by Vijayashanti in Mannan (1992) and Ramya Krishnan in Padayappa (1999).[7]

Her first release of 2007 was Shakti Chidambaram's Viyabari in which she played the role of a journalist who wants to write an article about a successful entrepreneur played by S. J. Suryah. The film opened to negative reviews and flopped at the box office,[8] but Tamannaah received praise for her performance.[9] She got her breakthrough with Sekhar Kammula's Happy Days (2007 film) and Balaji Sakthivel's Kalloori, both of them featuring Tamannaah as a college student. She won critical acclaim for her performances in both the films.[10] The commercial success of Happy Days and Kalloori established her career as an actress in both Telugu and Tamil films.[11] Her performance in the latter earned her a nomination at the 56th Filmfare Awards South in the Best Tamil Actress category.[12]

Her first release of 2008 was the Telugu film Kalidasu directed by debutante G. Ravicharan Reddy. She was paired with debutante Sushanth, the grandson of actor Akkineni Nageswara Rao.[10] Upon release, the film opened to moderate reviews and critics felt that she looked good and very romantic but had less scope to perform.[13][14][15] The film was an average grosser at the box office.[16] She later made a cameo appearance in the Telugu film Ready followed by another cameo appearance in the Telugu - Tamil bilingual Ninna Nedu Repu titled Netru Indru Naalai in Tamil.[17]