Amala Paul (born October 26, 1991) who previously used Anakha as her stage name, is an Indian film actress, who works in the South Indian film industry. After appearing in supporting roles in the Malayalam film Neelathamara and a low budget venture in Tamil, she received critical acclaim for the portrayal of a controversial character in the film, Sindhu Samaveli. Despite the failure of that film, Amala became noted after playing the title role inMynaa, receiving critical acclaim for her work. Since then, she has been signed on for several notable projects and is considered the leading actress in Tamil films.[1] She has appeared in a few Malayalam films as well
Early career
Amala, after finishing her [Plus Two] education, took a year out before planning to pursue engineering. At the time, her modelling portfolio was spotted by noted Malayalam director Lal Jose who offered her a supporting role in his remake, Neelathamara (2009). Despite emerging a success, the film failed to attract any further offers, as she had anticipated.[2] She pursued roles in Tamil films and went on to sign the low-budget comedy film Vikadakavi which was delayed and ultimately became her sixth release, while also signing on to play the lead role in another small budget film Veerasekaran (2010). The film, which became her maiden Tamil release, was panned by critics and went completely unnoticed,[3][4] while Amala's role was being labelled as 'minimal',[3] and she later cited that she regretted doing the film and many of her scenes were edited out.[2] Amala Paul then went on to work in Samy's controversial Sindhu Samaveli (2010), portraying the role of Sundari, who has an illicit relationship with her father-in-law. The director of the film had previously drawn criticism for his depictions of illicit romances as well as for assaulting his previous lead actress in a film, but Amala played down the issue citing that she had no problem with the director.[2] She was approached after the major portions of her next release, Mynaa were ready and signed on before listening to the entirety of the story, claiming that she was shocked but not upset with the controversial scenes which she heard later.[2] Upon release, the film met with contrasting reviews, whilst some critics refused to give the film a rating, declaring their disgust at the film's plot.[5][6] Amala's performance won her critical acclaim. However her success was marred with extreme reactions from the public, with Amala claiming she received death threats from anonymous callers and was publicly scolded by women at a cinema hall in Chennai.[7]
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Personal life
Amala was born on October 26, 1991 in Ernakulam, Kerala to Christian Malayali parents, Paul Varghese and Annice Paul.[26] After completing her Plus Two examinations at govt boys HSS, Aluva she took a sabbatical to begin a career in films, but has since joined St. Teresa's College in Kochi, to pursue a BA degree in English and is a currently in her third year.[12][27] Her father had been strictly against Amala pursuing an acting career, but was forced to accept her decision with her older brother, Abijith, strongly backing her ambition.[12] She later claimed she had performing arts in her DNA, revealing that her mother was a singer and her dad was into theatre in college.[28] Amala had changed her on-screen name to Anakha, on director Samy's insistence, who cited that another actress, Amala had already made her name popular. However, after the failure of Sindhu Samaveli, she reverted to her birth name since she felt that the replacement had brought her bad luck.[12] Amala says Anushka Shetty as her ‘role model’ and has added that she would love to follow suit in Anushka’s footsteps.,I value her a lot as an actress and reasons to think her of a real-life ‘role model’ for me.[29]
