{mosimage}Some might have liked Padmapriya while some might have not, but this dusky beauty can't be ignored. Simple, the reason being she comes across as an actress who came to this medium with passion rather than being drafted into it. Else how can you term this actor who had not only done an MBA from Kirloskar Institute but also had worked with GE as Risk consultant in Bangalore & Gurgaon. It was that advertisement for Fair & Lovely what got us a lovely actress who graces the screens in Tamilnadu & Kerala. Asked about her unusual choice of choosing films as career despite having a wonderful management degree and a job at GE normally every youngster dreams for, Padmapriya retorts "why do we believe that education isn't reqd for films, its so complex to make films it covers math, physics philosophy history psyhology music dance"
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Padmapriya is the daughter of Brig (Retd) V.K. Janakiraman and Mrs. Vijaya. Janakiraman and has her roots in Thenkasi, Tirunelveli a small town in Southern Tamilnadu. Because of her father's militiary background she had her schooling more in places other than Tamilnadu. If you ask her about her family, this smiling beauty will say "like everybody has - amma appa and anna"{mosimage}Padmapriya has grown up to be a vibrant dansuese under the auspices of the famous guru Natya Brahma V.S. Ramamurthy. She performed more than 200 public performances to her credit. Her Krishna Leela Ballet, where she performed the role of Lord Krishna for Hyderabad Doordarshan in 1990 is telecast even today on almost all Krishna Jayanti festivals and was specially chosen for the SAARC exchange program - she also featured in Nritya Rupam, an innovative choreography by Jayalakshmi Eshwar at Delhi, which was also specially telecast by Delhi Doordarshan. She has also won Miss. Andhra Pradesh in 2001.
Priya's (as she loves to be called as) passion for performance based acting made her taking abstract choices in choosing the roles. Her first ever movie role was a sexually exploitted poor sister of a blind brother, in the Telugu movie - "Seenu.. Vaasanthi.. Lakshmi", a remake of Malayalam hit - "Vasanthiyum, Lakshmiyum pinne gnaanum..", which was later remade as "Kaasi" in Tamil. Her portrayal of a poor girl caught the attention of Blessy, the erstwile assistant of Padmarajan, legend of Malayalam cinema. He was searching a fresh face for his off-beat film "Kaazhcha" opposite to Mamooty. The role was a mother of 3 kids and how they accomodate one more kid from Gujarat earth quakes. An unusual non-glamorous debut again, Padmapriya went on to woo the classes and masses alike, making her the favourite of the western coasts of Malabar. "Kaazhcha" went on to become an off-beat classic in the annals of Malayalam cinema, more movies followed in the language, that too with prominent all film-makers like Sibi Malayil, Jayaraj, Shajun Kariyal and with M's - Mohanlal & Mamooty, commercial pot boilers like "Rajamanickam" too completing her reportoire.
Padmapriya's asset is her face that chameleons to any local milieu with ease. She can easily look like a typical Malayalaee girl in Kerala movies while transform herself completely to a local Tamil girl. She can easily be identified as a Kannadiga girl or Manavadu girl of Andhra Pradesh in any of her movies. Along with it, her dancing skills aid her in giving right expressions to the emotions of the characters. Padmapriya shouts from the rooftop that she is a tamilian and being proud for that. She says that she would love to settle down in Calcutta due to her penchant for Bengali culture.
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{mosimage}Next stop - Kodambakkam, Chennai. Director Cheran who wanted a homely actress for his semi-biographical "Thavamai thavamirunthu" signed this actress. Once again a subtle yet powerful performance that soothed the audience's hearts that longed for a brilliant performance amidst of sexy bimbettes. Padmapriya had arrived. When asked of her debuts in all the languages, she replies that since she had come with a passion for movies and a career out of choice (she had a happening career in finance earlier) she was ready to do a role of 60 year old lady for her debut. Padmapriya admits that she slogs in her movie sets like an assistant director, who joins the team for editing also later. She is getting trained to wield the megaphone in the near future.Padmapriya is more of a malayalam actress than Tamil as she is having a dream run there. Infact she is the only one who gives Meera Jasmine a run for her money with better roles in all the super star's movies. When comes to performance, Meera's disadvantage is her bubbly young face and Padma's advantage is the same matured appearance. Padmapriya can slip like a glove easily into the roles of a college student (Vadakkumnathan) as well a social activist based on Ajitha's life (Ashwaroodan). However the áctress feather in the cap will be Kamal's "Karuthapakshi"opposite to Mamooty again.
Her frankness has ruffled some feathers' in Tamil film industry. Her comments about "blockbuster "Kadhal" didn't go well with Shankar and other film makers. Also her friendly nature of getting along with the co-stars has given gossip mongers a field day linking her to Cheran & Arya. Still Padmapriya continues to get strong roles, with latest one being - Vasanth's "Sattham Podathey.."opposite to current hearthrob on Kerala & Tamilnadu - Prithviraj. Also her attempts to go glamorous with "Pattiyal" has brought brickbats to this young actress. Now read the first line of this article, which will be appropriate.
Padma emulates Shobana in a way - dancing. Padmapriya says, 'I want to balance both acting and dancing'. On the difficulties involved in balancing between acting and dancing, Padmapriya, says, 'There is plenty to do as a performer. Dancing and acting are different media of expression. Each calls for a different degree of involvement. The similarity is that in both, you deliver rasas to the audience. But the way in which you do it is different. The only disadvantage of such multi-tasking is that a day is just not long . Padmapriya loves to do more offbeat movies with TV Chandran & Adoor Gopalakrishnan. She rates her roles - Meera, a Sanskrit student who stands by her hubby in recovery, in Shajin Kariyal's "Vadakkumnathan" as her career's best while "Thavamai..." comes to close next.