Trisha

Trisha Krishnan (born 4 May 1983) is an Indian actress who works predominantly in Tamil and Telugu films.

Trisha was born on 4 May 1983 to Krishnan Iyer and Uma Iyer in Madras (now Chennai) into a Palakkad Iyer family.

She completed schooling at the Sacred Heart Matriculation School in Church Park, Chennai, and later pursued a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) course at the Ethiraj College for Women (Chennai).

She ventured into modelling and appeared in several print and television commercials.

The romantic musical, based on the 1998 Malayalam film Summer in Bethlehem, fetched generally positive reviews.

She gained prominence after winning the 1999 Miss Chennai pageant, which marked her entry into Cinema.

Trisha is the recipient of several accolades.

Trisha is often referred as the "Queen of South India" or "The South Queen" for her contributions to South Indian Cinema.

She has been ranked among the top actresses in South Indian Cinema by The Times of India.

After marking her debut with a minor supporting role in the Tamil romantic drama Jodi (1999), Trisha had her first lead role in the film Mounam Pesiyadhe (2002).

In 1999, she won the "Miss Salem" beauty pageant, and later the same year, the Miss Chennai contest.

Soon after her pageant success, Trisha began her acting career in a minor supporting role as Simran's friend in the romantic drama Jodi (1999).

In 2000, she appeared in Falguni Pathak's music video Meri Chunar Udd Udd Jaye as Ayesha Takia's friend.

She had also won the Miss India 2001 pageant's "Beautiful Smile" award.

Trisha had aspired to become a criminal psychologist initially, and resisted the thought of pursuing acting, as she wanted to complete her studies first.

However, both the projects' releases were severely delayed, and her first release was Ameer's Mounam Pesiyadhe (2002) opposite Suriya.

The film became a moderate success at the box office and managed to gain credentials for Trisha, with critics claiming that she was "undoubtedly a refreshing new find, with sparkling eyes and appealing demeanour", also going onto praise the dubbing artiste, Savitha Reddy, who has since regularly dubbed for Trisha.

She rose to fame starring in commercially successful films Saamy (2003), Ghilli (2004) and Aaru (2005) in Tamil cinema, and Varsham (2004), Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana (2005), Athadu (2005) and Aadavari Matalaku Ardhalu Verule (2007) in Telugu cinema, winning three Filmfare Awards for Best Actress – Telugu.

She was later approached for an acting role in the Tamil film Lesa Lesa (2003) by Indian film director Priyadarshan, which marked the beginning of her professional career as an actress.

She followed a tight shooting schedule while in college, making it difficult for her to continue her education.

She compensated for this by attending summer classes.

The first film she accepted was the Priyadarshan-directed Lesa Lesa, with the promotional posters for the film, also creating an offer to star in the A. R. Rahman musical hit, Enakku 20 Unakku 18 (2003).

Manasellam (2003), her second project, saw her play a cancer patient, but the film went unnoticed upon its March release.

Her subsequent release was the Hari-directed action film, Saamy (2003) with Vikram.

She played a soft-spoken college-going Brahmin girl and received positive reviews for her performance, with Sify's reviewer citing that she was "appealingly sensual" and looked "glamorous", and another critic writing that she looked "very pretty" and suited the role.

The masala flick became the biggest blockbuster of the year, grossing ₹16 crores, and landed Trisha new offers, including several high-budget productions.

Lesa Lesa, which was supposed to be her debut, released later the same month in May 2003.

Following Lesa Lesa, she appeared in Alai (2003) which proved unsuccessful at the box office.

Her fourth and final release of the year was Enakku 20 Unakku 18 (2003), which was commercially unsuccessful, but nevertheless helped proper her career due to its critically acclaimed music and visuals.

In 2004, she debuted in Telugu cinema with M. S. Raju-produced romantic action film Varsham, which turned her into an overnight sensation.

Critics lauded her performance as Sailaja, a middle-class girl who becomes a film star on her father's insistence; Jeevi from Idlebrain stated that she was "beautiful" and a "big plus to the film", labelling her performance as "natural", while Sify noted that she had "transformed herself into a fine actress with immense screen presence".

A critic from fullhyderabad.com praised her, citing that she had shown why Tamil Nadu was "busy building her a temple", further adding that she looked "so fresh and fine, you feel like gifting her to the roses".

The film was a major commercial success, running in theatres for over 175 days and becoming one of the highest-grossing films of the year, and was declared a "sensational hit".

For her role in Varsham, Trisha won her first Filmfare Awards for Best Actress – Telugu award, as well as the Santosham Award for Best Actress.

She was also offered the same role in its Tamil remake Mazhai, which she declined.

Later in 2004, she acted as the female lead opposite Vijay in the action comedy film Ghilli.

Her performances in the comedy drama Abhiyum Naanum (2008), the romantic drama Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa (2010), the political thriller Kodi (2016), the romantic drama '96 (2018), and the historical dramas Ponniyin Selvan: I (2022) and Ponniyin Selvan: II (2023) were met with critical acclaim.

Her performances in Kodi and '96 earned her the Critics Award and the Best Actress award at the Filmfare Awards South.

Her highest-grossing release came with the action film Leo (2023).

Trisha made her Hindi cinema debut by starring in the film Khatta Meetha (2010).