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Top 10 Fascinating Facts about Pooja Umashankar

Pooja Gauthami Umashankar aka Pooja, is an Indian-Sri Lankan Kollywood actress, who has primarily appeared in Tamil, Sinhala and Malayalam Language films. Pooja’s mother Sandhya is a Sri Lankan Sinhalese and her father H.R.Umashankar is an Indian Kannadiga Brahmin from Sringeri in Chikmagalur district of Karnataka.

Pooja can speak Kannada, Sinhala, Tamil and English. After she did her pre-schooling in Sri Lanka, she came to India and went to Poornapragnya in Aldur, Chikmagalur and then to Nirmala Convent in Mysuru. Later she continued her education at Baldwin’s Girls High school in Bengaluru and Mount Carmel College, Bangalore.

She has a Master’s Degree in Business & Management. She was also a part of Mani Ratnam’s stage show, Netru, Indru, Naalai (Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow). For more top 10 fascinating facts about Pooja Umashankar.

1. Pooja was introduced to Cinematography by a Friend

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Pooja was introduced by a friend of her to cinematographer-turned-director Jeeva, who signed her for the role of Anglo-Indian girl in his Tamil venture Ullam Ketkumae. Pooja said that at that time she planned to finish that film and return to her original job and did not take an acting career into consideration. She stated: “I said to myself I’d act in just this film, see what it’s like, make good use of the money and get back to studying.”

Jeeva was an Indian filmmaker, cinematographer and film director in Tamil, Hindi and Malayalam-language cinema. He was an established cinematographer in the late 90s and early 2000s.

2. Pooja Acted in the Highest Grossing Kollywood Film

Her big-budget film Kusa Pabha was released in early 2012 and became the highest grosser ever in the history of Sri Lankan film industry. Critics praised Pooja for her role of Pabawathi. Kusa Paba is Sri Lankan Sinhala historical drama film that stars Pooja Umashankar and Jackson Anthony in lead roles along with Ravindra Randeniya and Veena Jayakody. The film is based on the 550 Jataka tales. The film grossed a high profit for the year and was a major hit among Sri Lankans.

It is the story of King Okkaka is the emperor of India. He rules Kusawathie city, with his queen Seelawathie and two sons, Kusa and Jayampathi. Kusa makes a golden sculpture in a woman’s shape and tells his mother that he will marry if she can find a woman who looks like the sculpture. The queen orders two royal servants to take the statue to all other countries and find a woman who looks like the statue.

3. Pooja was a TV Judge for a reality Dance Show

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She was one of the judges in the reality dance show Aatam Paatam Kondatam Kalaignar TV, Sun TV. In India, reality shows are full of drama, emotion and reality. Attam Pattam was a family show aired on Kalaignar tv and was presented by Tata Indicom in 20018. In the show, there was a host and two judges who handled the show and its goings-on. Dance master Kala directed the show and Pooja was one of the judges.  

The show contestants competed for prize money of Rs 3 lakh. Each week different rounds happened, and the contestants had to dance based on the round. The dances showcased included: folk dance, hip hop, contemporary, freestyle and other dance forms.

4.   Pooja鈥檚 Kiss Controversy

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At the Sarasaviya film awards ceremony, her kiss of Prime Minister landed her in controversy. She was seen landing a rapid peck on Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s lips after receiving the award. Gossip sites went to town with the incident and later the actress denied that it was a lip-kiss.

鈥淚t looked like that due to the particular angle the shot was taken and it was nothing more than an innocent kiss on the premier鈥檚 cheek鈥� she later told a paper.

5.  Pooja received Numerous Acting Awards

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Pooja won accolades at a local film festival after Anjali Patel, an award-winning Hindi and regional languages star (Delhi in A Day, Newton, Mirzya, Kill the Rapist? and Prathyayam) who won the Sarasaviya Best Actress Award in 2016 for Prasanna Vithanage鈥檚 acclaimed Oba Nethuwa Oba Ekka (With or Without You).

She has received several film fare awards for her performances, including Best Female Debut Amrutha Surabi film awards for the Film Jay Jay.

She won Vijay Award for Best actor female for the film ”Naan Kadavul”.

For her performance as Seema in the 2003 Tamil film Jay Jay, she earned the Amrutha Surabi Film Award in the “Best Female Debut” category.

6.  Pooja Called off Wedding Plans with Model Deepak

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 Pooja was in a relationship with Sri Lanka-based model Deepak Shanmuganathan and their engagement also took place in a grand manner. But later the duo split due to a difference of opinions that cropped up and the wedding was called off. Deepak Shanmuganathan was a model and a marketing and PR consultant.

鈥淒eepak and I met at a common function and he proposed to me on his birthday. I said yes. But, the marriage will take place only mid next year because I have few commitments to complete,鈥� saaid Pooja who was then located in Bangalore.

7.   Pooja on Theatrical Stage

Mani Ratnam. Image by Sriram Narasimhan from

She has also worked in Mani Ratnam’s stage show, Netru, Indru, Naalai (Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow). Netru, Indru, Naalai was a series of musical theatre performances, that was held in Chennai, India by Indian film director Mani Ratnam. Choreography for the show was provided by Kala and Brinda. There were unconfirmed reports of close to 12,000 people attending the show.

Directed by Mani Ratnam, the three-hour song, dance, and drama extravaganza brought to life definitive celluloid moments from Tamil cinema, across its different eras (Netru (yesterday), Indru (today) and Naalai (tomorrow)), to the stage.

The show featured 100 dancers, as well as actors and actresses from across the country. Acclaimed film and theatre composer A. R. Rahman had composed a special song for the show, and other notable technicians involved in the production include art director Sabu Cyril, and award-winning director/cinematographer Rajiv Menon.

8.  Pooja Converted to Christianity to Marry her Love

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On December 2016 she married Prashan David Vethakan who is a Sri Lankan businessman. Pooja Umashankar of Naan Kadavul fame who has acted in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Sinhalese and  English, secretly married Prasan David Vedhakan in Colombo, with only the families of the couple in attendance.

Pooja got married to Sri Lankan businessman Prashan David Vethakan and converted to Christianity and is now very much involved in preaching about Jesus Christ. The couple has a daughter and are settled in Colombo.

9.  Pooja Studied at Mt. Carmel College

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Mount Carmel College in Bangalore awarded her a bachelor’s and master’s degree in business. The actress with stunning looks and a bubbly personality studied for B.com and MBA at Mount Carmel College in Bangalore. She was employed at Hindustan Unilever Limited as a manager when she was spotted by Jeeva.

He was looking for a fresh face for his Tamil film Ullam Ketmumae, to play the role of an Anglo-Indian girl. She thought she would finish the film as soon as possible and return to her desk job thinking that her career was not in films, but her destiny had other plans for her future.

10. She has Been Linked to Roshan Ranawana

Later she was romantically linked to handsome Sinhala heartthrob Roshan Ranawana. Both parties denied the rumours of an affair, with Pooja adding that at the time she was on the lookout for a partner as per her mother鈥檚 insistence.

Roshan Ranawana is a Sri Lankan film actor and a model. Ranawana was awarded the most popular actors award at the Derana film awards in 2013. Ranawana made his acting debut with Hiripoda Wessa and won a Presidential award for the best upcoming actor for his performance.