Amazing Asin!
by Nilma Dole
It was indeed an honour to meet
the amazing and bubbly Asin Thottumkal when she came to Sri Lanka with
Salman Khan to shoot the film Ready. She comes across as a humble and
down-to-earth beauty with a glittering smile that exudes with her charm
and grace. Asin is more than just a pretty face decorating the
billboards advertising Tamil radio channels around the country, she is a
very versatile and talented actress who has brains and a great
personality. Asin said that her name means pure. “The ‘A’ in my name is
from Sanskrit meaning ‘without’, and ‘sin’ is from English,” she said.
And like her name, Asin is without sin and is a peace-loving actress.
 Posing with us and looking sensational in photographs, Asin spoke
about how movie stars are not politicians when it comes to filming a
movie in foreign countries. “We are not politicians and it’s not right
when people take it out on the Indian movie stars when it comes to us
acting in beautiful Sri Lanka!” she said. She added, “We are only
uniting people with our performances and films, not dividing and it’s a
problem when people blame us for trying to make a difference when it
comes to our acting in certain countries they don’t like.”
Being a Tamil actress and now making her mark in Bollywood with the
successful Ghajini, Asin has had a roller-coaster ride when it came to
uniting audiences not only in Sri Lanka but various parts of India too.
“It isn’t easy to please but I have a goal to bring peace through my
work and want to see smiling faces and not protests when it comes to the
films I choose,” she said.
With her ability to speak several languages such as Hindi, Tamil,
Telegu and English, Asin made her debut in a supporting role in Sathyan
Anthikkad’s Malayalam film Narendran Makan Jayakanthan Vaka in 2001, at
the tender age of 15. “My first visit to Sri Lanka was in 2004 to shoot
the film Gharshana but we didn’t have much fanfare like this film
because it was a Telegu film,” she said. Though, they did have a slight
problem when they did a shoot in Nuwara Eliya. She jokingly said, “My
co-star and I were doing a scene when the boat capsised and it was like
a love scene from Titanic.”
Now living in Mumbai, Asin was born in Kochi, Kerala to Joseph
Thottumkal, a businessman and a surgeon Seline Thottumkal. Her father
now manages his daughter’s acting career and he accompanies her to all
her foreign shoots. Asin’s first Tamil film was M. Kumaran son of
Mahalakshmi, in which she co-starred with Jayam Ravi.
With nearly 30 films to her credit, Asin has won Filmfare awards for
the Best Telegu actress in 2003 and 2005. She also clinched an IIFA Star
Debut award two years ago.
“I believe that as long as you are true to yourself and good to
people, your talent will come naturally and you will shine,” said Asin
with a smile. We are happy to have Asin in our country because she sets
a good example with her big heart and her peace-loving spirit! |
