Amala Paul

Amala Paul is an Indian film actress, who works in the South Indianfilm industries. After appearing in supporting roles in theMalayalam film Neelathamara and Veerasekaran in Tamil, shereceived critical acclaim for the portrayal of a controversialcharacter in the film, Sindhu Samaveli. Despite the failure ofthat film, Amala became noted after playing the title role inMynaa, receiving critical acclaim for her work.

Career

Early career

Amala, after finishing her Higher Secondary education, took a year outbefore planning to pursue engineering.She later joined St Teresa'scollege, to pursue a BA Degree in Communicative English. Atthe time, her modelling portfolio was spotted by noted Malayalamdirector Lal Jose who offered her a supporting role in his remake,Neelathamara (2009). Despite emerging a success, the film failedto attract any further offers, as she had anticipated. Shepursued roles in Tamil films and went on to sign the low-budget comedyfilm Vikadakavi which was delayed and ultimately became her sixthrelease, while also signing on to play the lead role in another smallbudget film Veerasekaran (2010). The film, which became her maidenTamil release, was panned by critics and went completelyunnoticed, while Amala's role was being labelled as'minimal', and she later cited that she regretted doing thefilm and many of her scenes were edited out. Amala Paul thenwent on to work in Samy's controversial Sindhu Samaveli(2010), portraying the role of Sundari, who has an illicitrelationship with her father-in-law. The director of the film hadpreviously drawn criticism for his depictions of illicit romances aswell as for assaulting his previous lead actress in a film, but Amalaplayed down the issue citing that she had no problem with thedirector. She was approached after the major portions of hernext release, Mynaa were ready and signed on before listening to theentirety of the story, claiming that she was shocked but not upsetwith the controversial scenes which she heard later. Uponrelease, the film met with contrasting reviews, whilst some criticsrefused to give the film a rating, declaring their disgust at thefilm's plot. Amala's performance won her criticalacclaim. However her success was marred with extreme reactions fromthe public, with Amala claiming she received death threats fromanonymous callers and was publicly scolded by women at a cinema hallin Chennai.

2010s

Amala's next release, the romantic drama film Mynaa (2010) byPrabhu Solomon, made her a recognised actress in the industry. Thefilm had garnered much anticipation prior to release, with noteddistributors Udhayanidhi Stalin and Kalpathi S. Aghoram purchasingthe rights of the film after being impressed with it. Amalaplayed the village belle Mynaa, attaining unanimous praise fromcritics for her portrayal; a critic labelled her work as "outstanding"and that she put in a "riveting performance", while otherreviews claimed she had "immense talent" and scores in "everyinstance" in the title role. The film, which also saw hergain recognition from noted actors Kamal Haasan andRajinikanth, subsequently became a large commercial success at thebox-office. Amala Paul gained recognition from several awardcommittees and notably secured the Vijay Award for Best DebutActress, while also gaining nominations in the Best Actress categoryat the Filmfare Awards and the Vijay Awards.

Following the success of Mynaa, Amala became touted as the "new starof 2011" as she subsequently signed on to several prominentprojects. Her first release of 2011 was in a supporting rolein the Malayalam drama film, Ithu Nammude Katha, a remake of thesuccessful Tamil film Naadodigal and the second was meant to beher launch in Tamil films, the coming-to-age tale of five friendsVikadakavi with the film opening to limited screens. Both filmsopened to limited screens due to the moderate budget of the projects,with her performance in the latter being described as "full ofpotential". She went on to sign three big budget films withestablished production houses, with the drama Deiva Thirumagaldirected by Vijay, featuring her opposite Vikram and alongsideAnushka, becoming her next release. Her portrayal ofschool correspondent Shwetha Rajendran won critical acclaim with areviewer citing that her "expressive eyes help her leave a mark in asmall but important role" whilst another critic claimed she "acquitsherself well". Her final release of 2011 was RamGopal Varma's Bejawada which marked her début in Telugu languagefilms. The film saw her portray college girl, Geetanjali, and featuredher opposite Naga Chaitanya, but the film opened to negativereviews and became a surprise box office failure.

Amala Paul's first release of 2012 was in Linguswamy'smulti-starring action entertainer, Vettai, alongside Arya,Madhavan and Sameera Reddy. The film opened tocritical and commercial acclaim with The New York Times claimingthe film "entertains without breaking any new ground, though it canalso surprise". Amala Paul won mixed feedback for herperformance; while the critic from Sify mentioned she "is lovelyto look at and her feisty performance proves that a star isborn", Pavithra Srinivasan of Rediff cited she "struts,pouts and hams to the hilt". The actress had three filmsreleased on the Valentine's Day weekend of 2012, with BalajiMohan's bilingual Kadhalil Sodhappuvadhu Yeppadi and Love Failurebecoming critical and commercial successes. The film, made in Tamiland Telugu, featured her alongside Siddharth and portrayed as hercollege girl, Parvathi, showing her romantic skills. About the Tamilversion, a reviewer from The Hindu wrote: "Amala Paul, aftercoming across as convincing in her last few movies, looks finally setas a leading lady", while another critic labelled that she "comesacross as natural" and "it is a pleasure to see her in a role andcostumes that suit her age as compared to her recentmovies". Rediff.com called the Telugu version ofthe film "refreshing", highlighting that the lead pair's on-screenchemistry "sparkles". The romantic thriller MuppozhudhumUn Karpanaigal opposite Adharvaa, also released on the same dayin which she played Charulatha, a modern girl based in Bangalore.The film won mixed reviews, though the lead pair's on-screen chemistrywas praised by critics, while another reviewer noted that "Amalarenders an effortless act". She played a notablerole in renowned director Dr. Biju's Aakashathinte Niram,which was her first art-house film. The film was screened at thecompetition section for the Golden Goblet Award in the 15thShanghai International Film Festival. She paired with veteranMalayalam actor Mohanlal in the film Run Babby Run in whichshe played the role of a senior news channel editor. The film was abig commercial success and her performance as well as herchemistry with Mohanlal were highly appreciated.

In 2013, Amala Paul achieved her first commercial success in Telugucinema. Her first release in 2013, V. V. Vinayak's directorialNaayak, opposite Ram Charan Teja, went on to be one of thebiggest critical as well as commercial success of the year.Her next film was Puri Jagannadh's romantic comedyIddarammayilatho opposite Allu Arjun. Upon release, Amala'sperformance was appreciated by the critics. Sangeetha Devi Dundroo ofThe Hindu commented "Amala Paul manages to pull off a character thattraverses a thin line between being naïve and downright silly. We wishwe saw more of her." Another reviewer, Sasidhar AS from TheTimes of India commented "Amala Paul's characterisation is a delight,and she plays Komali so effectively that you'll be left wondering whoelse could have done the role better than her. She was a perfectchoice to play a traditional Telugu girl." She was laterseen in A. L. Vijay's action entertainer,Thalaivaa oppositeVijay, as a police officer. Her most recent release wasSamuthirakani's Nimirndhu Nil opposite JayamRavi, which was simultaneously shot in Telugu as JandaPai Kapiraju, in which Nani reprised the role of JayamRavi.

Personal life

Amala was born in a Syro-Malabar Catholic Nasranifamily on 26 October 1990 in Ernakulam, Kerala toPaul Varghese and Annice Paul. After completing herschooling from GOVT.Girls HSS Aluva, she took asabbatical to begin a career in films, but has since joined St.Teresa's College in Kochi, to pursue a BA degree inEnglish. Her father had been strictly againstAmala pursuing an acting career, but was forced to accept her decisionwith her older brother, Abijith, strongly backing herambition. She later claimed she had performing arts in her,revealing that her mother was a singer and her dad was into theatre incollege. Amala had changed her on-screen name to Anakha, ondirector Samy's insistence, who cited that another actress, Amalahad already made her name popular. However, after the failure ofSindhu Samaveli, she reverted to her birth name since she felt thatthe replacement had brought her bad luck.

As early as 2011, when Amala was working on Deiva Thirumagal, shewas romantically linked to director A. L. Vijay but denied thatthe pair were dating. The pair subsequently fell in love andannounced in early 2014. that they were set to get married in mid2014. On June 7, 2014 she got engaged to Vijay at Aluva inKochi. The couple got married on June 12 at MayorRamanathan Chettiar Hall, Chennai, as per Hindu religiousbeliefs.

Galleries of Amala Paul