The name is Oak. Girija Oak.
You can now put a name to the face in that viral video of a charming woman clad in a lovely blue saree, sharing her life experiences, including the very funny and relatable anecdote about her physics teacher who used to mispronounce "waves" as "babes".
While Girija Oak is well-known in Marathi theatre and cinema circles, she has sporadically worked in the Hindi circuit, with Taare Zameen Par, Ladies Special, Jawan, and Inspector Zende to her credit.
The Internet has fallen in love with the woman in the blue saree.
The Internet's Latest Crush
Some are curious about her, while others could not stop praising her acting skills.
“Who's this in the blue saree? Seen her trending drop the name if you know,” said a user on X.
A post read, “Marathi actress #GirijaOak has suddenly become one of the most talked-about names on Twitter after a photo of her in a blue saree and sleeveless blouse went viral.”
A person called Girija Oak “the prominent and most beautiful Marathi actress”.
Who Is Girija Oak?
1. Born on December 27, 1987 in Nagpur, Maharashtra, Girija Oak is the daughter of veteran Marathi actor Girish Oak and homemaker mother Padmashree Phatak. Girija Oak is married to filmmaker Suhrud Godbole.
2. Girija Oak holds a degree in biotechnology from Thakur College of Science and Commerce, Kandivali East, Mumbai, as reported by The Times of India. She also pursued business management studies and attended theatre workshops before stepping fully into acting.
3. She is best known for her work in the Marathi and Hindi entertainment industries. She has appeared in several Marathi films, including Gulmohar, Lajja and Navra Maza Bhavra. The actress has also featured in a Kannada film titled House Full.
4. In Bollywood, Girija Oak played the role of Jabeen in Aamir Khan's 2007 hit Taare Zameen Par. She also appeared in Shor in the City (2010) and Shah Rukh Khan's Jawan (2023). She is also played of the leads in the Sony TV show Ladies Special, which centered on the lives of four women who who travel by the Ladies Special Local Train in Mumbai.
5. The actress has also been part of several OTT projects such as Modern Love: Mumbai, 13th: Some Lessons Aren't Taught in Classrooms and most recently, Inspector Zende, in which she starred opposite Manoj Bajpayee.
In case you missed it, in a recent interview, Girija Oak shared how her physics lecturer left the entire class puzzled when he kept asking everyone what are “babes”.
The confusion, she recalled, finally cleared up when he said, “There are two types of babes. Transitional babes and longitudinal babes”. Turns out, he was actually talking about the types of waves.
Girija Oak's Response To All The Love On The Internet
Girija Oak said her phone hasn't stopped buzzing since Sunday.
"I am amused! I was in rehearsals for my play and couldn't take calls," she told the Hindustan Times.
The actor also said there were some handles on X that had "sexualised" her.
"Suddenly, all my friends were messaging me, 'Do you know what's happening on X?' One sent me a post debating if it was (actor) Priya Bapat or me! Then my devar told me some cheap handles picked up my pictures and there was a whole 'bhabhi lover' scene happening. Some pages sexualised me. But Marathi fans said, 'You've only just discovered her! We've known her for years'," she added.
Girija Oak said she is aware that the Internet's blue-saree woman obsession is just another trend.
"The work I do is here to stay. If people discover my work now, that makes me happy."
Girija Oak also made headlines when she opened up about how safe she felt while filming intimate scenes with Gulshan Devaiah in her upcoming series Therapy Sherapy.