Amala Paul

26 Oct, 1991 | Ernakulam, Kerala

Actress/Producer

Biography

Amala Paul is an Indian film actress, who works primarily in the Tamil film industry. After appearing in supporting roles in a few low budget ventures, she was acclaimed 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 in Mynaa, receiving critical acclaim for her work in the film. Career: Amala Paul, after finishing her Plus Two education, took a year out before planning to pursue engineering for further education. 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.  Amala Paul worked 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 for assaulting his previous lead actress in a film, but Amala played down the issue citing that she had no problem with the director. 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. 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.  Following the success of Mynaa, Amala became touted as the "new star of 2011" as she subsequently signed on to several prominent projects. She has signed six big budget films with established stars since, with two films opposite Vikram in Deiva Magan and a yet to be titled Suseenthiran project. She will then appear in the bilingual Vettai and its Telugu version Veta opposite leading actors Arya and Mahesh Babu under Linguswamy's direction. Moreover, she has also signed the romantic musical Muppozhudhum Un Karpanai opposite Adharvaa and the Telugu film Oh My Friend which also features Siddharth and Amrita Rao. Amala also has three smaller films in production, the first being her maiden Tamil assignment, Vikadakavi. Personal Life: Amala was born in 1991 in Ernakulam, Kerala to Christian Malayali parents, Paul Varghese and Annice Paul. After completing her Plus Two examinations, she took a sabbatical to begin a career in films, but has since joined St. Teresa's College in Kochi, to pursue further education and is currently in her second year. Amala had changed her on-screen name to Anaka, 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. Marriage & Divorce As early as 2011, when Amala was working on Deiva Thirumagal, she was romantically linked to director A. L. Vijay. The pair subsequently fell in love and got married on 12 June 2014. In 2016, Amala and Vijay filed for a divorce after her in-laws did not agree. They were granted divorce in February 2017.