Prema (Kannada)

Prema is an Indian film actress. She has worked as a lead actress in numerous Kannada and Telugu films besides working in a few Tamil and Malayalam films . She has appeared in many commercially successful and critically acclaimed feature films. She received the Karnataka State Film Award and Filmfare Best Actress awards for her performances in Kannada films. She has featured in Om and Yajamana, which are the two major blockbuster and highest grossing films of their time in Kannada Cinema.

She has starred opposite many leading actors such as Shivrajkumar, Vishnuvardhan, Ravichandran, Upendra, Mohanlal, Saikumar and Ramesh Aravind in her career spanning over two decades.

Prema was born in Bangalore on January 6, 1977 to a Kodava family. She studied in Mahila Seva Samaja High School in Bangalore. She completed her PUC in SSMRV college, Bangalore. Her hometown is Coorg. She was a national level player in high jump and volleyball before joining films.

Prema began her career in the Rajkumar camp in 1995 starring with both Rajkumar sons' Shivarajkumar and Raghavendra Rajkumar in Savyasachi and Aata Hudugaata respectively. Though both films did not perform well at the box-office, she was given the lead role in yet another Shivarajkumar starrer Om. This was directed by Upendra and was declared as the biggest blockbuster Kannada film of its time. Prema received rave reviews for her acting prowess and was in much demand among many directors to cast in their films. This film also brought her the much revered Karnataka State Award for Best Actress.

The year 1996 saw her perform in the critically acclaimed Sunil Kumar Desai directed Nammoora Mandara Hoove co-starring Shivarajkumar and Ramesh Aravind. This film also met with commercial success for its content as well as soundtrack by Maestro Ilayaraaja. In the same year, she branched out to Malayalam and Telugu film industries. Her Malayalam debut in The Prince opposite Mohanlal was a high successful venture. Dharma Chakram was her Telugu debut film.

The next two years were not very successful for her as she starred in some commercially failed ventures both in Kannada and Telugu films. Her comeback was noted in the 1999 released Chandramuki Pranasakhi co-starring Ramesh Aravind and Bhavana. She also starred in Upendra in the same year which had 3 other actresses. The same year saw her pairing with the lead actor V. Ravichandran for the film Naanu Nanna Hendthiru. Her Telugu language film, Devi made a collection of Rs. 18 crores and its dubbed version was released in Hindi language.

The year 2000 saw 6 releases of Prema films of which Yejamana turned out to be another huge blockbuster film, breaking all the previous records in the box-office collections. It was a remake of the Tamil hit Vanathai Pola and co-starred actor Vishnuvardhan. The other notable film of her in this year was the Malayalam hit Daivathinte Makan.

2001 year proved again lucky to Prema since she began with a hugely successful film Kanasugara, a remake of Tamil film Unnidathil Ennai Koduthen, which fetched her the Filmfare Award for Best Actress. She also won other awards for her portrayal of a simple housewife character. Amma Nagamma also made Prema a household name among the devotional film fans for her portrayal of the serpent God character. She went on to star in more such films but found little success in those films.

From 2001 to 2004, Prema starred in few films which were box-office failures. In 2004, Apthamitra, a remake of Malayalam superhit Manichitrathazhu by P. Vasu, was the only major blockbuster movie after her dull career phase. She starred in the film as a supporting actress while the lead actress Soundarya walked away with many accolades.

Post her marriage in 2006, Prema acted in very few films as a supporting character and completely stopped acting after her last release Shishira in 2009. She has, thus far, acted in more than 50 movies in Kannada and more than 20 movies in Telugu.

Awards

1996 - Karnataka State Film Award for Best Actress - Om
2001 - Filmfare Best Actress - Kanasugara
Udaya Award for Best Actress
Screen Videocon Award for Best Actress
Cinema Express Award for Best Actress
Chitrapremigala Sangha Award
Devikarani Memorial Award

Prema is married to Jeevan Appachu, a Coorgi (Kodava) Software Placement Consultant / Business Man. They got married on Thursday, July 6, 2006. Prema, on the lines of some well-known actresses of the yesteryear, has the credit of having stayed away from controversies and affairs and enjoys a high reputation among movie-goers, especially the womenfolk.

Courtesy: Wikipedia

Prepared by: Winston Morris