| Kamalinee Mukherjee |
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Kamalinee Mukherjee (born March 4, 1980) is an Indian
film actress. She has appeared in Telugu films as well
as Tamil and Hindi language movies. After graduating with
a degree in English literature, she completed a workshop
on theatre in Mumbai because of her strong background
in it. She made her acting debut in Phir Milenge (2004),
a film that was based on the subject of AIDS. Though it
went unnoticed, she gained recognition in the multiple-award
winner, Anand (2004).
Early Life & Background
Mukherjee was born and brought up in Kolkata. While her
father is a businessman, her mother is a garment designer.
She is the eldest of the two siblings in the family. Owing
to her "love for being on the stage" since childhood,
she acted in all sorts of amateur and professional stageplays
while in school and college. Incidentally, she always
portrayed masculine characters in these plays. Besides
theater, she developed a love for reading spiritual works,
painting and writing poetry. Just before she began her
acting career in 2004, she had written three poems, each
of these titled as Thoughts, Confusion and Solitude for
poetry.com, a poetry-based website. One of these poems
was selected for an International Poetry Contest, where
along with one of the 150 people all over the world, she
was invited to Washington, D.C. for a seminar that was
presided over by Dalai Lama.Besides writing poetry, she
also underwent several years of training in Bharatanatyam,
an Indian classical dance form. After graduating with
a degree in English literature from Loreto College in
Kolkata, she took up a management course in New Delhi,
but left it midway. Thereafter, she took a course in
theatre arts in Mumbai due to her good background in
the field. Thereafter, she performed in many theater
plays and also modeled in advertisements for brands
such as Neelkamal Furniture, Parachute, Fair & Lovely
and Ayush.
Acting Career
After noticing Mukherjee in one of the advertisements
that featured her, actor-director Revathi offered her
a role in her second directorial venture, Phir Milenge
that revolved around the subject of AIDS. Though initially
apprehensive about her entering into the acting profession,
her parents were very supportive. In the film, she plays
a radio jockey and the younger sibling to Shilpa Shetty
in the film. Despite the fact that hers was not a lead
character, she had ample role to play in the film. Although
the film met with critical acclaim, her role went relatively
unnoticed.
Around the time Phir Milenge happened to Mukherjee
in Bollywood, Sekhar Kammula, a relatively new director
from the Telugu film industry was in the process of
casting for his next Telugu film, Anand. After coming
to know about her, Kammula selected her after a screen
test. She said that the role of an independent and modern
woman, which was just like her own personality, appealed
to her. When asked about her thoughts on a total change
of working environment from Bollywood to Tollywood,
she said that the only difference was with the language
and that she was more comfortable working for Anand
because the entire crew belonged to same age group.
With her being a Bengali and not knowing the Telugu,
well-known singer and television host, Sunitha lent
her voice for the film. After completion of filming,
she felt that as a relative newcomer she couldn't have
asked for more, but thought that she could have performed
better. Despite her thoughts, the film won 6 prestigious
2004 Nandi Awards bestowed by the Government of Andhra
Pradesh. Among these, Mukherjee won the Nandi Award
for the Best Leading Actress. Upon receiving the award,
she said "it is beyond the belief". Besides
this, she won a couple of awards for being the best
debutant actress of the year.
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