Priya Anand (born 17 September 1986) is an Indian actress and model who predominantly appears in Tamil films. She has also appeared in a few Telugu, Hindi, Kannada and Malayalam films.
After pursuing higher studies in the US, she began a career in modelling in 2008 before making her acting debut in the Tamil film Vaamanan (2009) and then her Telugu debut in Leader a year later.[1][2] She made her Hindi debut in 2012 with a supporting role in English Vinglish and subsequently appeared in the films Fukrey (2013) and Rangrezz (2013).
Priya became fascinated with films, developing an interest in cinema, since childhood, and noted that she has been dreaming of getting into the film industry and working on technical aspects of film making, but confesses she never thought of becoming an actor.[6][7] She moved to the US, where she pursued her higher studies.[7] Keeping her later career in mind, she studied communications and journalism at SUNY Albany.[6] In 2008, she returned to India and ventured into modeling, appearing in various television advertisements like Nutrine Maha Lacto, Prince Jewellery and Cadbury Dairy Milk.[6]
Priya was initially supposed to make her acting debut in the Tamil film Pugaippadam, which she signed up first, but since its release was delayed until 2010, her first release became the action-thriller Vaamanan, directed by newcomer Ahmed. She was signed for the project in late 2008 to portray Divya, a simple girl next-door, whom the male lead character, played by Jai, would fall in love with. The film created some anticipation before its release, mainly due to its hit music by Yuvan Shankar Raja, which enabled a big opening,[8][9] with the song "Aedho Saigirai", which was picturised on her, being considered as her "claim-to-fame" that made her popular among Tamil audience, and being dubbed as a "Priya song".[10][11] However the film got a lukewarm reception and fared only averagely at the Chennai box office.
In 2010, three of her films released within a short span of time, the first on New Year 2010, which was the college-life based drama Pugaippadam, a film revolving around the friendship between seven students. Priya enacted the character of one of the student roles, a Malayali Christian named Shiney George.[12] The film opened to mixed reviews and proved to be commercially unsuccessful. She next starred in her first Telugu film, AVM Productions' Sekhar Kammula directed political dramaLeader, alongside newcomers Rana Daggubati and Richa Gangopadhyay. She recalls that an assistant director of Kammula had found her on Facebook and invited her and how she had to audition thrice for the film to prove herself and eventually got the offer.[6][7] She played Ratna Prabha, a television channel reporter and friend to a young man, who would later go on to become a political leader. Although her screen presence in the film was very limited, her performance garnered overwhelming response and was well received,[2][13] while the film itself earned positive reviews and became a critical success.[6] The Dil Raju-produced family entertainer Rama Rama Krishna Krishna was her last 2010 release, in which she plays the love interest of the film's male protagonist. She next starred in 180, a bilingual Tamil-Telugu project by ad filmmaker Jayendra, which was her only release in 2011.[14]
2012–2015: Debut in Hindi and breakthrough in Tamil cinema
She has made her debut Hindi filmEnglish Vinglish (2012), produced by R Balki,[15] in which she had shared screen with Sridevi, who Priya admires and considers her idol. Priya said: "I signed this film just to be up and close to an artist who has influenced me and to be part of something that was so important to her. I'm doing this movie as her fan and I'm fortunate enough to play a very important part in her journey in the film".[16] She acted in Telugu romance movie, Ko Antey Koti (2012). Her Hindi films in 2013 were Rangrezz and Fukrey. In Tamil, she played the lead role in Ethir Neechal (2013) alongside Sivakarthikeyan and Nandita Swetha. The film is a box-office winner.[17] She was also seen in the comedy Vanakkam Chennai (2013).
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