Pretty Pooja
 Celebrating her birthday this
month will be Pooja Gauthami Umashankar who was born on June 25, 1981. A
household name in Sri Lankan cinema, she is a versatile and humble
actress who has appeared in Tamil, Sinhalese and Malayalam films.
Following a series of successful commercial ventures, Bala’s ‘Naan
Kadavul’ saw Pooja’s performance as a blind beggar which was praised by
the critics, securing a Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Female
Character Artiste.
Being such a humble and grounded individual, she has showed that even
though she’s a highly acclaimed actress in Sri Lanka, she has been true
to her fans. It wasn’t easy mastering the language of Sinhala but she
managed to overcome the language barrier very well. Pooja’s mother is a
Sri Lankan Sinhalese and her father is Tamilian.
The languages she can speak are Kannada, Tamil, Sinhalese, and
English. She went to school and college in Bangalore, Baldwin’s and
Mount Carmel College respectively. Her father’s name is Uma Shankar who
was at Valparai, working for the Hindustan Unilever Limited as a
manager. Her father was not at all interested in film industry but
supported his daughter every step of the way.
Pooja started her film career with her debut film ‘Ullam Ketkumae’ in
Tamil with Shaam, Laila, Arya, and Asin Thottumkal which was directed by
the late Jeeva. It wasn’t released until her second and third films ‘Jay
Jay’ and ‘Attagasam’ were released in 2003 and 2004 respectively. She
bagged one of the main roles in Bala’s ‘Naan Kadavul’ by replacing
Bhavana being appreciated by the critics for her fantastic performance.
She became a sensation in Sri Lankan film industry and a household
name after the success of ‘Anjalika’ (2005) and ‘Asai Man Piyambanna’
(2007). This also earned her the role of broadband ambassador for SLT
(Sri Lanka Telecom). For television, she became one of the judges in the
popular reality dance show Aatam Paatam Kondatam opposite dance master
Prasanna on Kalaignar TV. Overall, Pooja has shone on stage and will
enthrall movie goers in Sri Lanka with her latest offering ‘Suwanda
Denuna Jeewithe’ called ‘Fragrance of Life’ opposite Roshan Ranawaka. |
