Winning Smile - Trisha

16 TIME OUT The Gulf Today / Thursday, October 4, 2007

WINNING SMILE

LEADING LADY OF TAMIL AND
TELUGU CINEMA, TRISHA
KRISHNAN, BAGGED THE
KALAIMAMANI AWARD AND
NANDHI AWARD FROM THE TWO
RESPECTIVE STATE GOVERNMENTS,
WRITES KK MOIDU

Attractive actress Trisha was
honoured with the
Kalaimamani Award from the
Tamil Nadu Government and
the Nandhi Award from the
Andhra Pradesh Government recently.
Trisha is the reigning queen of Telugu
cinema, and to retain her top rank in Tamil
films, she is doing as many films in Tamil
as well.
Trisha, nicknamed Honey for her beautiful
smile, hails from Palakkad, Kerala.
Born on May 4, 1983 as Trisha
Krishnamurthy, she is the only daughter of
Krishnan and Uma Krishnan.
The Tamil Iyer actress was brought up in
Chennai and completed her schooling from
Church Park. She then did BBA from
Ethiraj College, Chennai.
Trisha entered the film industry through
modelling. She appeared in advertisements
for famous brands like Pepsi, Fair and
Lovely, Medimix, Josco Jewellery, Prince
Jewellery and Kumaran Silks. She recently
replaced Rani Mukherjee as the brand
ambassador of Fanta India. Trisha is the
brand ambassador of Scooty Pep+ and substituted
Preity Zinta. Even for Perk
Chocolate, she replaced Preity Zinta.

Trisha won the Miss Salem and
Miss Chennai contest with her striking
looks. Her participation in Fa
Miss India Femina Contest bagged
her the Miss India Miss Beautiful
Smile title. After winning these
awards she got ample opportunities
to work with leading designers and
choreographers. She turned out to be
a high-flying figure in fashion
shows. She also starred in Phalghuni
Pathak’s music album Meri Chunar
Ud Ud Jaye.
Trisha made her debut in the
Tamil film Jodi with a cameo role.
Her first film as a heroine was Lesa
Lesa directed by leading director
Priyadarshan. Her male lead of the
film was Shyam. Her first film
released was Mounam Pesiyathe
and she won the Filmfare debutante
award and critical acclaim for her
performance in the film. Her hero of
the film was Surya and it was an
average hit at the box office. Trisha
bagged nearly half-a-dozen heroine
roles even before the release of her
first film. Her performance in Mani
Ratnam’s Aayudha Ezhuthu,
Unakku 18 Enakku 20 and
Manasellam brought her into the
limelight. She co-starred with
Siddharth Narayan, Madhavan and
Surya in Aayudha Ezhuthu, a
remake of the Hindi film Yuva.
Trisha dubbed herself for Aayudha
Ezhuthu.
Trisha’s couple of films like Ji,
Aathi, Pournami and Aaru didn’t
perform well at the box office. Her
role in Saamy opposite Vikram and
her pairing in Ghilli opposite Vijay
helped her become one of the most
sought-after heroines in Tamil cinema.
The success of Saamy and Ghilli
put a stamp on her popularity.
Trisha repeated her Tamil success
in the Telugu industry also. Her film
Varsham was a superhit and she won
the Filmfare Best Actress Award.
She went on to co-star with Sidharth
Narayan in Nuvvostanante
Nenoddantana in a village girl role
as Sini. Nuvvostanante
Nenoddantana directed by Prabhu
Deva was an entertainer. The film
tells the story of a rich boy who
wants to marry an ordinary girl and
her brother opposes the relationship.
The film was a box office hit and
Trisha won the Filmfare Best
Actress Award and Nandhi Award.
Trisha repeated her role in the Tamil
remake Something
Something.....Unnakkum Ennakum.
Her hero of the film was Jayam Ravi
and the film repeated the box office
victory in Tamil.
The big budget Telugu film
Sanikudu, with Mahesh Babu, was
thought to be a below average film,
but it managed to get a fantastic
opening and did average business at
the box office. Trisha played the
female lead opposite senior Telugu
hero Venkatesh in Aadavari
Matalaku Ardhalu Verule. The film
was the Telugu directorial debut for
Selvaraghavan. The entertainer
received good response from the
family audience and Trisha’s performance
was one of the highlights
of the film.
Trisha also played the heroine
opposite Telugu stalwart Chiranjeevi
in Stalin. The songs of the film were
picturised in Italy and Austria.
Anushka Shetty performed an item
number in the film directed by AR
Murugadoss.
Trisha succeeded in playing a
comedy role in her recently released
Tamil film Kireedam opposite Ajith.
The film with good expectation has
won rave reviews from the media
and good response from the public.
Kireedam is a remake of the
Malayalam blockbuster of the 80s
and the film is about the bondage
between a father and son.
The release of the film was celebrated
in Tamil Nadu by her fans
with great joy. They organised blood
donation camps, distributed sweets
and erected cut-outs of the actress to
celebrating the release of their
favourite screen heroine’s film.
Although she was replaced by
Nayanthara in Ilayathalapathy
Vijay’s forthcoming Kuruvi from the
team of the superhit Ghilli, Trisha’s
hands are full with offers not only
from Tamil but also from the Telugu
industry. She has played the heroine
role of more than two dozen films in
her career spanning more than five
years with crowd pulling heroes.
Trisha earlier opted out from
playing the heroine in Vallavan
opposite Silambarasan because her
character in the film was extremely
glamorous and later Nayanthara did
the role. Trisha earlier rejected offers
for films like Majaa opposite
Vikram and Don opposite
Nagarjuna due to her prior commitments.
The female lead of Majaa
was later played by Asin and
Anushka Shetty played Nagarjuna’s
female lead in Don.
In Trisha’s forthcoming Telugu
films, she will play the female lead
opposite Ravi Teja in the VV
Vinayak directed Bezawada Bujji
and Prabhas starrer Bijjigadu under
the direction of Puri Jagannadh.
Her ready-to-release Tamil film
Bheema, directed by Linguswamy,
will be noted for her pairing with
Vikram after the superhit film
Saamy. Abhiyum Naanum is another
prestigious project for her, produced
by Prakash Raj and directed
by Radha Mohan. Prakash Raj also
plays her father in the film.
Trisha will play the female lead
in Gautham Menon’s Chennaiyil
Oru Mazhaikalam with four male
debutante heroes. AR Rehman will
compose the lyrics of renowned poet
Thamarai for the film. The story of
the film is about life in the underworld
and it will be a musical entertainer.
Trisha is a winner of Vijay TVs
most Favourite Tamil Actress award
in 2006. Her rivals for the competition
were Simran, Jyothika and
Asin.
Although Trisha is very popular
in Tamil and Telugu films, she has a
massive fan base in neighbouring
Kerala. Her Malayalee fans watch
their favourite heroine’s Tamil and
Telugu films with interest. She
couldn’t satisfy them by appearing
in a Malayalam film, unlike other
leading heroines of the industry.
Finally, Trisha will appear in a
Malayalam film Target. But, to her
fan’s despair, it is a dubbed version
of the Telugu superhit Athadu starring
Mahesh Babu in the lead.
Athadu was the highest grosser of
2005 in Telugu. Other important
characters of the film are played by
Prakash Raj and Nassar. The film
scripted and directed by Trivikram
Srinivas tells the story of the tough
life of two friends from the street.
Their struggle to reach the pinnacle
of society is telling in the film. The
songs of the dubbed version in
Malayalam will feature the voices of
leading singers MG Sreekumar,
Jyotsna, Sujatha, Vineeth
Sreenivasan, Franco etc.
Trisha, with her beauteous smile
and entertaining performance, is
doing well in Tamil and Telugu
films. But will her appearance in a
dubbed Malayalam film satisfy her
fans? Or would they like to watch
her in other language films other
than a dubbed Malayalam film?