1.
Meera Jasmine
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Meera Jasmine, born Jasmine Mary Joseph, is an Indian actress from Thiruvalla, Kerala, who appears in South Indian cinema. The Hindu called her one of the few actors who could hold her own amongst stars, Meera Jasmine was born on 15 February 1982 in a Syrian Christian family in Kuttapuzha village, Thiruvalla, Kerala to Joseph and Aleyamma. She was the fourth of five children and she has two sisters, Jiby Sara Joseph and Jeny Susan Joseph, who has also acted in films, and two brothers, one of them, George worked as an assistant cinematographer. She completed her schooling in Bala Vihar, Thiruvalla and Marthoma Residential School and she appeared for her Higher Secondary Exams in March 2000. She had enrolled for a BSc degree in Zoology at Assumption College, Changanassery, Meera had initially wanted to study and become a doctor and never had dreamed of becoming a film star. She stated, I was just an ordinary girl, never in my wildest dreams did I imagine being in films. I had not acted even in school plays, I never was the artistic type, I never thought I could dance, and I had not even thought of myself as being beautiful. She also said that Lohithadas is like a figure and my guru. He initiated me into films with Soothradharan and I owe it all to him, Meera Jasmine made her debut in the Malayalam film Soothradharan. Her second film was Gramaphone, directed by Kamal, in which she appeared alongside Navya Nair and her role as a Jewish girl was appreciated by Malayalam critics. Her third film was Swapnakkoodu, a romantic comedy alongside Prithviraj, Kunchako Boban, Jayasurya and her performance was appreciated and the film was a high commercial success. Among the five characters, the one who scored the most was again Meera. She rose to fame in Malayalam cinema with the film Kasthooriman directed by her mentor Lohithadas, in which she enacted comedy and she received her first Filmfare award for her performance in Kasthooriman. The film was also a success at the box office, running for 100 days, the same year, she acted in T. V. Chandrans acclaimed Padam Onnu Oru Vilapam. She played a 15-year-old Muslim girl who was forced to marry a man, for which she was awarded a State Award. It was followed by her performance as Raziya in Perumazhakkalam alongside Kavya Madhavan, in the film Achuvinte Amma, she enacted the young, adorable character Achu. She then paired with Mohanlal in Rasathanthram and she played as a girl pretending to be a boy in the first half of the film. The film went on to become a commercial success and her next film with Dileep – Vinodayathra, which again was directed by Sathyan Anthikkad
2.
India
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India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and it is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, in the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Indias Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a border with Thailand. The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE, in the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires, the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate, the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal empire, in the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance, in 2015, the Indian economy was the worlds seventh largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, a nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the third largest standing army in the world and ranks sixth in military expenditure among nations. India is a constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu, the latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as The people of the Indus, the geographical term Bharat, which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. Scholars believe it to be named after the Vedic tribe of Bharatas in the second millennium B. C. E and it is also traditionally associated with the rule of the legendary emperor Bharata. Gaṇarājya is the Sanskrit/Hindi term for republic dating back to the ancient times, hindustan is a Persian name for India dating back to the 3rd century B. C. E. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since then and its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety
3.
Malayalam
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Malayalam /mʌləˈjɑːləm/ is a language spoken in India, predominantly in the state of Kerala. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and was designated as a Classical Language in India in 2013 and it was developed to the current form mainly by the influence of the poet Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan in the 16th century. Malayalam has official status in the state of Kerala and in the union territories of Lakshadweep. It belongs to the Dravidian family of languages and is spoken by some 38 million people, according to one theory, Malayalam originated from Middle Tamil in the 7th century. However, the current understanding proposes the separation of Malayalam from Proto-Dravidian in the pre-historic era, Malayalam incorporated many elements from Sanskrit through the ages. Before Malayalam came into being, Old Tamil was used in literature and courts of a region called Tamilakam, including present day Kerala state, silappatikaramit was written by Chera prince Ilango Adigal from Chunkaparra, and is considered a classic in Sangam literature. Modern Malayalam still preserves many words from the ancient Tamil vocabulary of Sangam literature, the earliest script used to write Malayalam was the Vatteluttu alphabet, and later the Kolezhuttu, which derived from it. As Malayalam began to borrow words as well as the rules of grammar from Sanskrit. This developed into the modern Malayalam script, many medieval liturgical texts were written in an admixture of Sanskrit and early Malayalam, called Manipravalam. The oldest literary work in Malayalam, distinct from the Tamil tradition, is dated from between the 9th and 11th centuries, the first travelogue in any Indian language is the Malayalam Varthamanappusthakam, written by Paremmakkal Thoma Kathanar in 1785. Due to its lineage deriving from both Tamil and Sanskrit, the Malayalam script has the largest number of letters among the Indian language orthographies, the Malayalam script includes letters capable of representing almost all the sounds of all Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages. Malayalam serves as a language on the islands including the Mahl-dominated Minicoy Island. The word Malayalam originated from the Sanskrit resp, Malayalam words malai or mala, meaning hill, and elam, meaning region. Malayalam thus translates as hill region and used to refer to the land of the Chera dynasty, the language Malayalam is alternatively called Alealum, Malayalani, Malayali, Malean, Maliyad, and Mallealle. The word Malayalam originally meant only for the name of the region, Malayanma or Malayayma represented the language. With the emergence of modern Malayalam language, the name of the language started to be known by the name of the region, hence now, the word Malayanma is considered by some to represent the olden Malayalam language. The language got the name Malayalam during the mid 19th century, the origin of Malayalam, an independent offshoot of the proto-Dravidian language, has been and continues to be an engaging pursuit among comparative historical linguists. Together with Tamil, Toda, Kannada and Tulu, Malayalam belongs to the group of Dravidian languages
4.
Kaniha
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Divya Venkatasubramaniam, also known by her stage name Kanika or Kaniha, is an Indian film actress. Kanika made her debut in the 2002 Tamil film Five Star, she went on to work in other South Indian film industries, including Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada, as well. She is perhaps best known for her performances as Eashwari in her debut film Five Star, Gayathri in Varalaru - History of Godfather and she has had a successful run in the Malayalam film industry with back to back hits Bhagyadevatha and Pazhassi Raja. Kaniha was Born, July 3,1982, Madurai, India in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India as the daughter to Mr. and Mrs. Venkat Subramanian. She studied at TVS Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Madurai and also won accolades including the Tamil Nadu State Award for Educational Excellence in 1999 and she then got admitted on merit to BITS, in Pilani, Rajasthan, from where she graduated with a Mechanical Engineering degree. Having developed her talents from her childhood, by participating in pop music and light music shows, Divya was interested in singing. While she was studying, she gave stage performances as a pop singer from time to time. When she was supposed to perform at the Miss Chennai event, despite lack of experience, she emerged victorious at that contest, which would later pave her the way for a film career. Susi Ganesan spotted her on a cover page and insisted on her performing the lead female role in his second feature film. Divya eventually entered the Film industry, accepting the offer, while her name was changed to Kanika and her debut film was the Mani Ratnam-produced Five Star with Prasanna, who made his acting debut as well, in which Kaniha portrayed a traditional village girl. She completed the film during her summer holidays, since she was a student. Kanika turned down all projects that were offered to her, including films by S. Shankar. Sreeram, and went on to complete her graduation, even before she finished her graduation, she completed her Telugu debut film Ottessi Chepputunna during her winter vacations, acting under another stage name Sravanthi. In regard to her performance, Idlebrain wrote, Sravanthy looks homely in the film and she is good at dances as well. After completing her studies, Kanika decided to herself a go at the Tinsel towns. She starred in the Kannada film Annavaru, a remake of Mani Ratnams Thalapathi, stepping into Kannada filmdom and she followed the movie with a neat, cameo role in Cherans Autograph, earning critical acclaim. Kanika next appeared in a comedy oriented role in a film by K. S. Ravikumar, Aethiree along with Madhavan, Sada. Sify labelled her performance in the film as outstanding and she proved to be an actress to reckon with in the Kannada film Sye, a remake of Tamil film Dhill
5.
Joju George
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Jojo George is a Malayalam film actor known for his performance in supporting and comedy roles. He made his debut through Pattallam directed by Lal Jose and he did his schooling from GHS, Kuzhur. He studied at the Christ College, Irinjalakuda before commencing his career in the industry as an assistant director. He is married to Abba Joju in 2008 and has three children Ian, Sarah & Ivan, kerala State Film Awards - Special Jury Mention Joju George at the Internet Movie Database
6.
Antony Thekkek
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Antony Thekkek, also known as Thampy Antony, is an Indian-American film actor and producer. He is active primarily in Malayalam cinema and he is the elder brother of Malayalam actor Babu Antony. Thampy Antony was born in Ponkunnam into a Kerala Christian family and he is an architect by profession. He migrated to the United States and has lived in the San Francisco bay area for over 2 decades and he is involved in health care business in the United States. Antony made his debut, with ‘Arabia’, a film that starred his younger brother Babu Antony in the lead. He has since acted in many American and Indian productions. He won the Best Actor Award at the Honolulu International Film Festival in 2005 for portraying the role of Dr. Acharya in the English film Beyond the Soul, in 2010, he featured in the Hollywood movie Cash. Thampi Antony produces films under the banner of Kayal Films and has produced critically acclaimed movies like Parudeesa, Sufi Paranja Katha,10 Kalpanakal EMSum penkuttyum Monayi engene anayi ABCD, American-Born Confused Desi. Mannooran and Decon Jose Ivan Megharoopan. Publisher Swamy Dam999. The Architect Abu, ustad A Million Dollars. Thampy Yathra Thudarunnu The Wedding. Michael Ca$h. Bahadurjit Tejeenderpeet Singh Sufi Paranja Katha. Shanku Menon In Ghost House Inn. Dr. Sukumaran Nair Made in United States Nothing But Life. Col, zapher Ali Profile in Rotten Tomatoes Antony Thekkek at the Internet Movie Database Thampi Antony at MSI
