Shriya Saran

Shriya Saran



She was born 11 September 1982 and also known by the mononym Shriya, is an Indian film actress and model. She has acted in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi language films, as well as a few films in English and Kannada.Saran was born in Dehradun and spent most of her childhood in Haridwar. In 2001, her dance master gave her the opportunity to appear in Renoo Nathan's debut music video "Thirakti Kyun Hawa", which brought Saran to become known by many Indian filmmakers.

Shriya Saran   

Shriya Saran was born on 11 September 1982 in the Dehradun region of Uttarakhand in Northern India to Pushpendra Saran and Neeraja Saran.Her father worked for Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited and her mother was a chemistry teacher in Delhi Public School, Ranipur in Haridwar and Delhi Public School, Mathura Road, New Delhi.Saran completed her schooling from both schools where her mother had taught.She has an older brother named Abhiroop who lives in Mumbai. Her family lived in the small town of colony in Haridwar when she was growing up. She later studied at Lady Shri Ram College in Delhi and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in literature.Saran is an accomplished dancer. She was first trained as a child by her mother in Kathak and Rajasthani folk dance, and later trained in Kathak style by Shovana Narayan.She was involved with many dance teams in college and with her teacher. They would incorporate social issues into their dance routines.
Career
While in her sophomore year at the LSR College in Delhi, Saran got her first opportunity to appear in front of the camera for a video shoot. Following her dance teacher's recommendation, she was invited to appear in the music video of Renoo Nathan's "Thirakti Kyun Hawa".Shot in Banaras, the video was seen by Ramoji Films who offered her the lead role of Neha in their film Ishtam.Saran accepted the part, and even before it was released she was signed to four more films, including Nuvve Nuvve, in which she played a millionaire's daughter who falls for a middle class man. In 2002, she starred in Santosham, co-starring Nagarjuna, Prabhu Deva and Gracy Singh, which was her first commercial success.The film took the Nandi Award for Best Feature Film and Filmfare Best Film Award (Telugu). Saran played a girl who lets someone she loves go with another, but wins him back later in life. For her performance, she earned a nomination for the CineMAA Award for Best Actor- Female, giving her a good foothold in the Telugu industry in the early part of her career.

Although Saran aspired to become a well known dancer and believed she could enter the field of cinema as such, she was rather offered a leading role. Thus, Saran made her film debut in 2001 with the Telugu film Ishtam, and had her first commercial success with Santhosham (2002). She subsequently appeared in several more Telugu films, while making in-roads in the Hindi and Tamil film industries. In 2007, Saran starred in Sivaji, the highest-grossing Tamil film at that time. She also gained critical acclaim for her role in the 2007 Bollywood film Awarapan. In 2008, Saran played the lead role in her first English film, the American-Indian co-production The Other End of the Line. Her following projects included popular films such as Kanthaswamy (2009) in Tamil, and Pokkiri Raja (2010) in Malayalam, her roles in which have established her as one of the leading actresses in the South Indian film industries. In 2012, she was cast in the British-Canadian film Midnight's Children under the direction of Deepa Mehta, based on Salman Rushdie's Booker Prize-winning novel of the same name, for which she got international critical acclaim. She achieved further commercial success by starring in films such as Pavitra (2013) and Chandra (2013). In 2014, Shriya Saran starred in the critically acclaimed Telugu film Manam, which she received accolades for her performance.In 2008, Saran acted in the Hindi film Mission Istaanbul with Zayed Khan, Vivek Oberoi and Shabbir Ahluwalia. She played the character of Anjali Sagar which was inspired by the character of Romila Dutta played by Preity Zinta in the film Lakshya a journalist who desires to have a child with her husband, which leads to their separation, since he is reluctant. Bollywood Hungama critics said that her character was wasted, as again she gets very little screen time.However, she did pick up the Stardust Exciting New Face Award.

Shriya Saran   

Personal life


Saran is well known for her charity work. She describes herself as someone used to "sharing time and resources with the underprivileged since childhood." She says that "celebrities can show the way by sensitising people to social issues, campaigning for causes or being part of fund-raisers." Her family has always encouraged her to think of the needy.
Saran is a brand ambassador for the Naandi Foundation,and for the Save A Child's Heart Foundation (SACH), which works for the benefit of poor children and people affected by natural calamities. She helps finance a Prevention of Aids foundation. In 2009, Saran joined with other eminent personalities to promote 'The Joy of Giving Week', to encourage people from all walks of life to engage in acts of giving. She regularly participates in carnivals and campaigns that associate with children benefits. She is associated with animal welfare and the Blue Cross of India.She is also associated with an NGO called World Vision that finds parents for deprived kids, and works for Apollo’s RDF to raise funds for underprivileged childrens.

In January 2008, Saran was the subject of a controversy, when a Hindu organisation in Chennai lodged a police complaint against Saran, objecting to the outfit worn by her during the 175th day celebration of her film, Sivaji: The Boss. In a complaint, the Hindu Makkal Katchi (HMK) alleged that Shriya's outfit had "offended Hindu culture".Shriya publicly apologised to Tamilians and Hindus, saying it was a mistake, and that she had "great respect for the tradition and culture of Tamil Nadu I was shooting for a Hindi film in Thanjavur. I came to the function directly from the shooting, I was unaware of the repercussions because of the attire I wore during the function."
On working in different regional film industries in India she has stated, "I don’t consider Kollywood or Bollywood as separate entities. For me, there’s only a single category, the Indian film industry, which is extremely rich owing to its diverse genres and languages."She is fluent in Hindi, English, and can understand Tamil and Telugu well. On 19 January 2013, she quit Twitter due to derogatory comments from her followers.