Southern actress Asin, best known for her role in Ghajini, turns 32 today
Southern actress Asin, best known for her role in Ghajini, turns 32 today. All Is Well with the actress, who welcomed her first child, a daughter, just two days before her birthday. Asin is married to Micromax founder Rahul Sharma and she has taken a sabbatical form films. Here's her pictorial journey in the film industry.
Born in a Syro-Malabar Catholic Nasrani family, Asin Thottumkal in Kochi (Kerala), was first named Mary after her grandmother. The actress' father however rechristened her as Asin which means 'pure.' Her father Joseph is now her manager and her mother Seline is a surgeon. The actress was quite a bright student at school and has graduated with a Bachelor's degree in English Literature.
Asin was only 15 when she landed her first role in Malayalam movie Narendran Makan Jayakanthan Vaka.
But she took a year off work to complete her education and then returned with a bang in the Telugu film Amma Nanna O Tamila Ammayi opposite Ravi Teja. She won the Telugu Filmfare Award for Best Actress.
Riding high on the success of Amma Nanna O Tamila Ammayi, she bagged another Telugu movie Shivamani opposite Nagarjuna. She was given the Santosham Best Actress Award by a Telugu magazine. The Tamil remake of her super hit Telugu film Amma Nanna O Tamila Ammayi also made a big splash. The film made a record collection at the box office.
But the highlight of Asin's career so far has no doubt been the blockbuster Ghajini, co-starring Surya and Nayantara and directed by AR Murugadoss for which she also received the Tamil Filmfare Award for Best Actress.
In fact Ghajini's Tamil original helped Asin make inroads into Bollywood as well. The Hindi remake of the film starring Asin and Aamir Khan went on to become one of the biggest grossers ever in Bollywood. Asin also received the Filmfare Best Female Debut Award.
Asin's performance in K S Ravikumar's Dasavathaaram opposite Kamal Haasan received widespread critical acclaim. It was one of the biggest hits in the history of South Indian cinema.
Some of her other south Indian movies include Sivakasi, Majaa, Varalaru, Annavaram, Aalwar and Pokkiri which garnered mixed response in terms of commercial success and critical acclaim.
However, Asin was not so lucky second time in Bollywood with 2009 film London Dreams opposite Salman Khan and Ajay Devgn. The film bombed at the box office.
After two years, Asin was again paired opposite Salman Khan in the 2011 film Ready, which was a remake of a Telugu film of the same name. Ready placed Asin back on the map to stardom as the film was one of the highest grossing films that year.
In 2012, Asin was seen in three different films Housefull 2, Bol Bachchan and Khiladi 786. However the actress disappeared soon after that.
Asin was seen next in Umesh Shukla's All Is Well co-starring Abhishek Bachchan, Rishi Kapoor and Supriya Pathak. The film which released in 2016, revolved around a dysfunctional family whose members do not get along with one another and embark on a road trip to solve their problems.
Asin married Micromax founder Rahul Sharma in New Delhi on January this year. They first had a Church wedding, where actor Akshay Kumar stood as Rahul's best man.
On October 24, Asin and Rahul welcomed their first child, a daughter. Asin kept her pregnancy a secret and announced the birth of her daughter with this picture, which she captioned: "Ecstatic to announce the arrival of our Angelic Baby Girl earlier today. Thank you for all your love and wishes. She is the best birthday present I could ever ask for!"
