Trisha Krishnan
Trisha | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Trisha Krishnan |
| Occupation(s) | Film actress, model |
| Years active | 1999–present |
| Website | http://www.trisha-krishnan.com/ |
Trisha Krishnan (Tamil: த்ரிஷா கிருஷ்ணன், Triṣā Kiruṣṇaṉ; born 4 May 1983[1]) is an Indian film actress and model.[2] After her first appearance in the 1999 Tamil film Jodi, in a supporting role, she won a Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut for her first lead role in the 2002 film Mounam Pesiyadhe. She later rose to fame starring in the successful films, Saamy (2003) and Ghilli (2004) in Tamil cinema and Varsham (2004) in Telugu cinema,[3] for which she secured her first South Filmfare Best Actress Award. She made her Bollywood debut in the 2010 film Khatta Meetha opposite Akshay Kumar.[4]
Early life
Krishnan was born in Chennai into a Tamil family hailing from Palakkad, Kerala.[1] She attended S. A. E. C. College in Ramnad and later studied at Sacred Heart Church Park School, Chennai. In school, she participated in several cultural activities, sports and school band. While studying at M. S. E. C College, she ventured into part-time modeling and participated in various beauty pageants. As part of her modeling career, she appeared in many television advertisements including that of Fanta, Tata Indicom, Vivel ITC and Colgate Active Salt. She also appeared in Falguni Pathak's music video Meri Chunar Ud Ud Jaye as Ayesha Takia's friend dancing in the video.[5] In 1999, she won the Miss Chennai contest.[6] About her relationship with her mother Uma Krishnan, Trisha remarks, "She has been the pillar of my strength and has stood by me like a rock through thick and thin.[...] Everyone in the industry and my friends know how close I'm to my mom."[7]
Film career
1999-2003
Soon after her pageant success, Krishnan began her acting career in an uncredited role as Simran's friend in Jodi before moving onto appear in advertisements and in music videos, with Falguni Pathak's Meri Chunar Ud Ud Jaye being the most prominent. The first project she accepted was the Priyadarshan-directed Lesa Lesa, with the promotional posters for the film, also creating an offer to star in the A. R. Rahman musical, Enakku 20 Unakku 18 (2003).[8] However both the projects' releases were severely delayed, and her first release was Ameer's Mounam Pesiyadhe opposite Surya Sivakumar. The film became a moderate success at the box office and managed to gain credentials for Trisha, with critics claiming that she was "undoubtedly a refreshing new find, with sparkling eyes and appealing demeanour", also going onto praise the dubbing artiste, Savitha Reddy, who has since regularly dubbed for Trisha.[9] Manasellam, her second project, saw her play a cancer patient; but the film went unnoticed despite positive reviews for the film and the actress.[10]
Her subsequent release was the Hari-directed police film, Saamy with Vikram. She played a soft-spoken college-going brahmin girl and received positive feedbacks for her performance, with Sify's reviewer citing that she was "appealingly sensual" and looked "glamorous",[11] and another critic writing that she looked "very pretty" and suited the role.[12] The masala flick became the biggest blockbuster of the year,[13] grossing ₹ 16 crores, and landed Trisha new offers, including several high-budget productions.[14] Lesa Lesa, which was supposed to be her debut, released next.[15] The romantic musical, based on the 1998 Malayalam film Summer in Bethlehem,[16] fetched generally positive reviews.[17][18] Following Lesa Lesa, she appeared in two more films that year, Alai and Enakku 20 Unakku 18, all of which proved unsuccessful at the box office.[19][20]
2004-2007
In 2004, she debuted in the Telugu cinema industry with M. S. Raju's romance-action film Varsham, which turned her into an overnight sensation. Critics lauded her performance as Sailaja, a middle-class girl who becomes a film star on her father's insistence; Jeevi from Idlebrain claimed that she was "beautiful" and a "big plus to the film", labelling her performance as "natural",[21], while Sify noted that she had "transformed herself into a fine actress with immense screen presence".[22] A critic from fullhyderabad.com praised her, citing that she had shown why Tamil Nadu was "busy building her a temple", further adding that she looked "so fresh and fine, you feel like gifting her to the roses".[23] While the film was highly commercially successful, running for over 175 days theatres,[24] being declared a "sensational hit" and becoming one of the highest-grossers of the year,[25] Trisha was given the Telugu Filmfare,[26] as well as the Santosham Award for Best Actress.[27] She was also offered the same role in its Tamil remake Mazhai, which she however declined.[28] Later that year, she enacted the female lead opposite Vijay in the action comedy film Ghilli. She essayed the character of Dhanalakshmi, a helpless girl, whom a kabaddi player tries to save from the clutches of an influential thug, who wants to marry her, with most critics agreeing that her performance was overshadowed by Vijay and Prakash Raj's in particular.[29][30][31] The film eventually emerged the highest-grossing Tamil film of the year, celebrating a 175-days-run, too,[32][33] and remains Trisha's biggest commercial success so far. She next appeared in a small role in Mani Ratnam's political drama Aayutha Ezhuthu, starring as part of an ensemble cast that included Siddharth, Madhavan and Surya. The film, despite favorable reviews, performed poorly at the box office, while she was again outshone by the three lead male actors.
In the following two years, Trisha had twelve releases overall, which all but one featured her as the female lead. She was part of two male-oriented action-masala flicks Thirupaachi and Aaru, directed by Perarasu and Hari, which both offered only limited roles for her,[34][35] with the former becoming a major commercial success.[36][37] In her second Telugu project, the sentimental drama Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana, she starred alongside Siddharth. The film, being Prabhu Deva's directorial debut, opened to rave reviews, with Trisha receiving unanimous praise for her portrayal as the village girl Siri, which earned her three Best Actress prizes, including her second consecutive Filmfare Award and her first Nandi Award.[38][39] Idlebrain noted that she was "just great. Her tender looks, innocent face and Telugu traditional costumes make her a treat to watch", further labelling her expressions and "naughty antics" as excellent,[40] while Sify wrote of Trisha that she was "amazing as Siri [...] It is her career best performance and she has excelled throughout."[41] The film eventually secured eight Southern Filmfare Awards, the most ever by any Telugu film,[42] while also emerging highly successful at the box office.[43][44][45] Trisha later went on to reprise the role in its Tamil remake as well. Her subsequent releases, N. Lingusamy's Ji and Aathi, which saw her pairing with Ajith Kumar and Vijay, respectively, were both critical and economical failures, while Aaru was a moderate success and was received well by critics.[46] The successes of Varsham and Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana led to Trisha being casted in the third consecutive M. S. Raju film, with the producer stating that she was "one of the most talented and beautiful actress I have ever worked with", going on to draw comparisons to the works of Savitri, Nargis and Sophia Lauren.[47] The film, Pournami, directed by Prabhu Deva again, featured her in the titular role alongside a star cast and bombed at the box office. Her sole Tamil release of 2006, Unakkum Enakkum, the remake of Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana, where she acted opposite Jayam Ravi, did well at the box office. She starred in the Telugu film Stalin with Chiranjeevi, following which her Telugu film Sainikudu with Mahesh Babu was released.
Her next release was Aadavari Matalaku Ardhalu Verule where she was cast opposite Venkatesh. The film, Selvaraghavan's first Telugu venture, was a family entertainer and received good response especially from the family audience. Krishnan's performance was critically acclaimed and won her accolades, eventually resulting in her third Filmfare win. In Kireedam with Ajith Kumar, Krishnan tried comedy and received rave reviews. Kireedam opened with high expectations and received good reviews from media and audience and was declared a success. Her 2008 films, Bheema and Kuruvi failed to succeed at the box-office.
2008-present
Krishna with Ravi Teja, opened to rave reviews, and became a blockbuster. Her other release Bujjigadu starring Prabhas, directed by Puri Jagannadh was released during Summer and made a decent run. However Radhamohan's Abhiyum Naanum became a super hit and Krishnan was praised for her performance. King starring Akkineni Nagarjuna directed by Sreenu Vaitla was a December release and it became a blockbuster. In 2009 her film Sarvam with Arya did not do well and became just an average grosser. Her latest Tamil release Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa, directed by Gautham Menon opposite Silambarasan, released to positive reviews and also became a commercial blockbuster. Her 2010 Telugu release Namo Venkatesa, opposite Venkatesh, is a super hit. In the same year Krishnan starred in Manmadhan Ambu with Kamal Haasan and R. Madhavan and it became an above average grosser.
Trisha made her debut in Hindi film industry with the Priyadarshan film Khatta Meetha, starring opposite Akshay Kumar. Her latest release Theenmaar with Pawan Kalyan, which released on April 2011, has become a huge blockbuster. Her next release is Ajith Kumar's magnum-opus Mankatha which is scheduled for June 2011 release. She also has signed up to do Bodyguard in Telugu opposite superstar Daggubati Venkatesh.[48] The film is a remake of the Malayalam Bodyguard.
Krishnan recently replaced Rani Mukherjee as the Brand Ambassador of Fanta India. She is the brand ambassador of Scooty Pep+, for which she has replaced Preity Zinta. She is also the brand ambassador for Vivel Di Wills, a product by ITC Limited. In 2011, She has replaced Asin in Fairever fairness cream commercial.[49]
Other work and recognition
In 2010, Krishnan collaborated with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in issuing a public appeal to domesticate stray dogs and not crave for pedigreed foreign breeds.[50] In 2011, she won the 2010 NDTV Indian of the Year award under the Southern Star of the Year category.[51]
Controversies
Krishnan was the subject of a controversy in 2004 when a two and a half minute video clip of her taking a shower in the nude circulated over the Internet. She, however, denied her appearance in the clip, saying, "It was not me in the 2½ minute bathing video clip and someone who wants to malign my name has done this on purpose." In fact, the clip, which purports to have been shot from a hidden camera, makes it clear the subject, who often makes eye contact with the camera and engages in exaggerated pelvic gestures, knew she was being filmed. This makes it unlikely to be Trisha. In any case, she later filed a complaint with the Chennai Police Commissioner.[52] Subsequently, the Editor of the Tamil weekly Netrikkan was arrested by Chennai Police for publishing the nude photographs of her in the weekly.[53] In 2010, she was involved in a drug scandal controversy in Hyderabad, when a report on a Telugu channel claimed that Trisha's name was included with other top celebrities in the list of clients of Chima Clement, a Nigerian drug peddler, arrested in Hyderabad. Her name featured in the list because the channel assumed fashion designer Sidney Sladen, a close friend of Trisha of African origin, to be the Nigerian drug peddler. She declared the scandal as an attempt to malign her name in the Telugu film industry. She also sued the channel for dragging her name into the scandal.[54][55]
Personal life
Trisha resides in Chennai[56] with her parents, her grandmother, and her dog MINX.[1] Her mothertongue is Tamil, and she converses fluently in Hindi, French, and English.[1][57]