Asin

The film was a major hit at the box office, collecting inr 1840000000 worldwide.

Asin Thottumkal (born 26 October 1985), known mononymously as Asin, is an Indian former actress who appeared predominantly in Tamil, Hindi and Telugu films.

She is a trained Bharatanatyam dancer.

She has received three Filmfare Awards.

She began her acting career in the South Indian film industry, but later shifted her focus to Bollywood.

She speaks eight languages.

Asin was born on 26 October 1985 at Kochi in the state Kerala in a Malayali Syro-Malabar Catholic family.

Her father Joseph Thottumkal is an Ex-CBI officer and later managed several businesses.

Her mother Seline Thottumkal, who moved from Kochi to Chennai and then to Mumbai to live with her daughter, is a surgeon.

According to custom, Asin was to be named Mary, after her paternal grandmother.

Asin's father however, named her Asin as the name had a beautiful meaning.

Asin has quoted that her name means pure or without blemish.

She states that the 'A' in her name is from Sanskrit meaning "without", and "sin" from English.

She attended Naval Public School from LKG through X standard.

She then attended St. Teresa's School in Kochi for her Kerala Higher Secondary Examination Board (Plus Two) Education.

After that, she attended St. Teresa's College in Kochi, a college affiliated with MG University, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature.

Asin's first assignment was an advertisement for BPL Mobile.

Making her acting debut at the age of 15 with Sathyan Anthikkad's Malayalam film Narendran Makan Jayakanthan Vaka (2001), Asin had her first commercial success with the Telugu film Amma Nanna O Tamila Ammayi in 2003, and won a Filmfare Best Telugu Actress Award for the film.

She debuted in the Malayalam film Narendran Makan Jayakanthan Vaka in 2001, at the age of 15.

After taking a year out to pursue her education, Asin returned with her breakthrough film as an actress, Amma Nanna O Tamila Ammayi opposite Ravi Teja, portraying a Tamil girl in her first Telugu language film, which subsequently fetched her the Telugu Filmfare Award for Best Actress.

In the same year she won the Santosham Best Actress Award for her performance alongside Nagarjuna in her second Telugu film Shivamani.

Her following two Telugu films Lakshmi Narasimha and Gharshana, both portrayed Asin as the love interest for police officers and both were successful ventures.

Asin's first Tamil language film was M. Kumaran Son of Mahalakshmi, in which she co-starred with Jayam Ravi.

Asin reprised her role from her film Amma Nanna O Tamila Ammayi for the remake, which saw her portraying a Malayali girl instead of the Tamil girl in the original.

The film, initially launched in 2002, was supposed to be her debut as a lead heroine, is a college love story, directed by Jeeva, which was long-delayed but eventually became a successful venture at the box office, creating wider opportunities for her and the rest of the cast.

After the release of Ullam Ketkumae, Asin was cited as a leading heroine of the Tamil film industry after starring in blockbuster films such as Ghajini, Sivakasi, Varalaru and Pokkiri respectively.

The film which provided the breakthrough for Asin was Ghajini.

The film, co-starring Suriya, directed by AR Murugadoss, earned her the Tamil Filmfare Award for Best Actress.

Her role was that of a vivacious young model named Kalpana.

M. Kumaran Son of Mahalakshmi (2004) was her debut in Tamil and a huge success.

The movie subsequently went on to super-hit in Tamil cinema during 2004, introducing Asin to Tamil film industry.

After a brief return to Telugu films, to do Chakram, she appeared in Ullam Ketkumae.

She received her Filmfare Best Tamil Actress Award for her most noted critically acclaimed performance in her third Tamil film, Ghajini (2005).

She then played the lead female roles in many successful films, the most notable being the action films Sivakasi (2005), Varalaru (2006), Pokkiri (2007), Vel (2008) and Dasavathaaram (2008), hence establishing herself as the leading actress of Tamil cinema and was also honoured by the Tamil Nadu government with the Kalaimamani award for her excellence in the field of art and literature.

In late 2008, Asin made her debut in the Bollywood film Ghajini (2008), opposite Aamir Khan, which was the first Bollywood film to have collected more than ₹1 billion in the domestic box office, subsequently collecting inr 1900000000 worldwide.

Asin won the Filmfare Best Female Debut Award and many accolades for Ghajini.

2011 marked the most successful phase of Asin's Bollywood career, as she starred in Anees Bazmee's romantic comedy Ready, in which she co-starred alongside Salman Khan.

In 2012, Asin first starred in Sajid Khan's multistarrer Housefull 2, which collected more than ₹1 billion.

She then featured in Bol Bachchan and Khiladi 786, which were also commercially successful with both grossing over ₹1 billion.

In 2013, Asin was conferred with the Pride of South Indian Cinema award at SIIMA for her contribution to Tamil cinema.