2008-08-18T00:13:00.000-07:00

Biography

Genelia D'Souza (Born in 5 August 1987, Mumbai, India) Her parents originally hail from Goa and later moved to Mumbai. She has acted over a dozen films in South Indian cinema.Genelia studied at Apostolic Carmel High School in Bandra, Mumbai. After school, she joined the St. Andrews College, Bandra to pursue a Bachelor's Degree. Mumbai-based Genelia starred in the big budgeted Boys by top director Shankar. She starred opposite fellow débutante Siddharth. The film was a box-office hit and launched her career.
She left Kollywood for a while to concentrate on the Tollywood industry, starring in other successful films including, Satyam, Masti, Samba and Sye. She followed it up with a pairing with popular actor Venkatesh in Subhash Chandra Bose. She returned to the Tamil industry with the Sachein with Vijay.It bombed at the Box Office. Her film, Happy opposite Allu Arjun was a hit. Her most recent film, Bommarillu, with Siddharth Narayan, is a super hit. Chennai Kadhal, her Tamil project did average business.She was also a part of Mani Ratnam's stage show, Netru, Indru, Naalai. Recently, she won the Filmfare Award as a Best Actress for her performance in the block buster Telugu movie Bommarillu for the year 2006.

2008-08-18T00:03:00.000-07:00

Early life

Genelia D’Souza was born on August 5th, 1982 in England. Her family hails from Goa but then moved to Mumbai. After her family relocated to Mumbai, Genelia studied at Apostolic Carmel High School in Bandra, Mumbai. She joined St. Andrews College, Bandra to pursue her Bachelor’s Degree. She first hit the limelight with a Parker Pen commercial starring along side Amitabh Bachchan and further did a Fair and Lovely ad appearing along side Srikanth. The ace Tamil director, Shankar was very much impressed with her performance in both the ads and cast her in a leading role in his Tamil version of “Boys” in 2003.

Career

Genelia made her debut in Bollywood in 2003. Her first Hindi film was Tujhe Meri Kasam opposite Ritesh Deshmukh. The film went unnoticed. She left Bollywood for a while to concentrate on the Tollywood industry. Genelia then starred in the Tamil big budget film Boysdirected by Shankar. The film was a box-office hit and launched her career in south India.She went on to star in other successful Telugu films including, Satyam, Samba and Sye. She followed it up with a pairing with actor Venkatesh in Subhash Chandra Bose. She returned to the Tamil industry with Sachein with Vijay. It was average at the box office. Her second Hindi movie was Masti and was also opposite Ritesh. This film was a moderate success. Her most recent Telugu film, Bommarillu, with Siddharth Narayan, was a major commercial and critical success and she won the Filmfare Award as the Best Actress for her performance. She was also a part of Mani Ratnam’s stage show, Netru, Indru, Naalai. She came back into Kollywood with Santhosh Subramaniam, which is the remake of Bommarillu. The film also turned out to be a rather successful as its predecessor. Her debut film in Kannada Satya In Love grossed 4 crores in its opening week thus setting a new record in the Kannada film industry.She also appeared in Mere Baap Pehle Aap alongside Akshaye Khanna, which was moderately successful. Genelia finally made her breakthrough in Bollywood starring in the blockbuster, Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na opposite Imran Khan, who is Aamir Khan’s nephew. The movie released in July 4, 2008 and was a success across India and overseas. She was noted for her role as Aditi Mahant aka “Meow” and her chemistry with co-star Imran.