Tamil Movie Actress Genelia D'souza

 Now the host of Indian television’s Big Switch, actress and model Genelia D’Souza has made a film career typified by hard work despite several stumbling blocks in a career that launched practically by accident.

The Mumbai-born D’Souza completed a bachelor’s degree in management studies, became a state-level athlete playing football and sprinting, and considered going to work for her mother’s employer, Pharma MNC, when she landed her first movie role, in Tujhe Meri Kasam, a Bollywood film centered on two close friends. Earlier, at 15, she was a bridesmaid when spotted by a modeling agent who steered her toward a Parker Pen commercial spot with Amitabh Bachchan—who praised her expressions and her spontaneity. That led to further advertisements including a Fair and Lovely 2003 Cricket World Cup spot with cricketer Krishnamachari Srikkanth and, the same year.

Tujhe Meri Kasam bombed at the box office and prompted the reluctant actress (she first rejected the film role, agreeing only when seeing a Telugu version of the film) to try south Indian films, when director S. Shankar—who was impressed with her Parker Pen spots—cast her in the lead for Boys, her first Tamil movie. This film received better notices and did stronger box office business, leading her to Telugu film offers. Her first Telugu film, Satyam, casting her as a medical student, earned her individual praise and was another box office success.

D’Souza then starred in the Hindi comedi Masti (2004), playing one of three wives now harassing their husbands who have been close friends. This film earned some of her strongest reviews and did well in the Indian and British box offices. She made three more Telugu movies, Samba, Sye, and Naa Alludu, but the third of those slumped at the box office. She returned to Tamil movies and the romantic comedy Sachein, and received the strong notices her earlier Tamil effort failed to attract, as she also did in the Telugu patriotic fulm Subhash Chandra Bose despite its commercial failure.

In 2006, D’Souza appeared in three Telugu films the third of which, the romance Bommarillu, proved a blockbuster and a Golden Nandi award-winner—and garnered D’Souza her first awards, as Best Actress from the Telugu Filmfare, the Nandi Special Jury Award, and the Santosham Best Actress Award. Her next film, the Tamil gangster film Chennai Kadhal, brought mixed reviews, but in 2007 her portrayal of a gangster’s sister in the Telugu blockbuster Dhee landed her an FNCC Best Actress Award. D’Souza eventually starred in a Tamil remake of Bommarillu which proved as successful as the original and earned D’Souza some of her strongest reviews to date.

She gave Bollywood another try in mid-2008 and this time the results were different—Mere Baap Pehle Aap earned mostly positive reviews. Her real Bollywood breakthrough was Jaane Tu . . . Ya Janne Na, a hit in India and abroad that established her with critics as restoring a long-missing spark in Hindi filmmaking. However, her followup, Life Partner, earned her several poor reviews.

D’Souza’s film career since has ridden a comparable roller coaster; her first 2010 film, Chance Pe Dance, playing a choreographer, received mild reviews for her performance even as the film itself was widely panned. She is scheduled to play in a Hindi remake of Bomarillu and a Tamil remake of Ready, a Talugu film in which she acted in 2009.

D’Souza has hosted Big Switch—about slum kids—since October 2009. She has also become identified with Fanta soft drinks, Perk chocolate, and Spinz deodorant. And for all the up-and-down result of her film career to date, D’Souza holds a Limca world record—for appearing in four blockbuster films in four different languages in the same calendar year.