Friday, October 15, 2010

Can Kangana Ranaut Knock Out competition?

New age tragedy queen Kangana Ranaut is in the lead role in the “Knock Out Movie” opposite Sanjay Dutt. With this fast paced thriller the pair directed by Mani Shankar plans to create an euphoria like Sunny Deol films.


In a very small career on silver screen Kangana has won prestigious Filmfare and National Film Award. She made her Bollywood debut in 2006 with Mahesh Bhatt film Gangster. The film was a commercially successful and her performance was also applauded. For this film she got two Filmfare awards for Best Female Debut and Fairever Fresh Face. She was adjudged best debut actress by Zee Cine Award, Stardust and IIFA.

Hence, her career started to roll further. Two years later in 2008 she won National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as a troubled model in Fashion. The film theme was around the dark side of the fashion world. Ranaut's portrayal of a supermodel who loses everything on drug abuse gained her widespread praise.

She was born in a small town called Bhambla in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh. Her family lives in Mandi. Before joining films Kangana took essential training for Kathak dance and modelling in Delhi. She even joined Asha Chandra's three-month course in 2004 to brush herself to face camera.

"It's been quite a journey...I came to the industry when I was just 17 with no real idea of what to expect. I was fortunate that 'Gangster' was a huge hit at the box office. I won a lot of awards and the industry gave me another chance. Otherwise, Bollywood is an industry that's very unforgiving towards outsiders," said Kangana to a magazine.

The path ahead for her is promising but not easy. The media reports rumour about her troubled relations with Salman and Aditya Pancholi in past. But she is entrepreneur by nature and harbours a dream of directing a film for which she already has a script in mind. She has designed the clothes for her upcoming movies 'Rascals' and 'Tezz'. Other upcoming films of her are : 'Dum Maaro Dum', 'Game', and 'No Problem'

So far, Kangna has got applauds from critics for the performance in 'Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai', 'Fashion', 'Life In A... Metro' and 'Gangster'. Some of the critics find the glimpses of legendary actress Meenakumari in her. Kangana considers Madhubala, Angelina Jolie and Parveen Babi as her role models.

Merinews.com

Friday, October 8, 2010

Ramya Krishna – A name unknown after 25 years and 200 films

The glamour world is a place where it takes years to make the name but no time to get lost. Even if she was a niece of the editor of one of the most popular Tamil magazine Thuglak. Cho Ramaswamy himself was a comedian, playwright, lawyer and columnist and a king maker in Tamil politics. His niece Ramya Krishna had become bollywood sensation when she was cast against Vinod Khanna in Dayavan more than two decades ago.

Ramya Krishna

But she got only nine hindi films thereafter including Bade Miyan Chhote Miyan with Amitabh and Khalnayak opposite Sanjay Dutt. She was directed by Mahesh Bhatt in Criminal. It was inspired by the 1993 American Film The Fugitive starring Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones Where she played the role of a sub inspector.

These banners and star cast coupled with the looks of Ramya should have made her in the slot where her contemporary Dhak Dhak girl Madhuri or later Kapoor sisters reached. But it did not happen since critics found her a waxed doll unable to act. Yet she hit a double century of the count of films.

Ramya Krishna was born on September 15, 1970 in Chennai and by the time she celebrated her 13th birthday she was known as the heroine of Mudal Vasantham. The movie released in 1982 when was a student of Std 8th. She first played the lead role in Vellai Manasu in Tamil opposite Y. Gee. Mahendra.

Though the bollywood directors did not find substance in her. Her looks got her work in South India. She acted in all regional language films of southern part.

Her role as Neelambari in Tamil film Padayappa opposite Rajnikanth brought her recognition and fame not only in South India but also internationally in Japan, Singapore, London and Paris. This film silenced her critics. The film was released in Telugu also as Narasimha.

During a span of twenty five years Ramya Krishnan has acted opposite two generations of Telugu superstars, including Akkineni Nageswara Rao, NT Ramarao, Krishna, Sobhan Babu, Chiranjeevi, Balakrishna, Venkatesh, Akkineni Nagarjuna and Jagapathi Babu.

Like Hindi Movies she has not been lucky with awards. She bagged only one prestigious Nandi Award from the Government of Andhra Pradesh. She also received Film Fare awards twice. In 1999 as Best Actress for Padayappa. Ten years later in 2009 for her film Konchem Ishtam Konchem Kashtam she was judged Best Supporting Actress.

She has settled in Hydrabad after marrying Telugu director Krishna Vamsee in the year 2003. The couple has a son named Ritwik.