Popularly known as the ‘Pride of South Indian Cinema’ or ‘Queen of Kollywood’, the beautiful Indian actress Asin Thottumkal began her career in the South Indian film industry and later achieved a strong foothold in Bollywood as well. She has proven her acting talent by being part of a series of hit movies in Kollywood like M.Kumaran S/O Mahalakshmi, Majaa, Ghajini, and Pokkiri. She managed to follow it up with instant success in Bollywood, by being a part of several 100-crore movies like Ghajini, Ready, Bol Bachchan, Housefull 2, etc.
Asin is one of the few of actresses who has managed to win Filmfare Awards for Tamil, Telugu and Hindi movies. In fact, she began her film career with a Malayalam film, and is the only Malayali actress apart from Padmini, to have dubbed in her own voice for all her movies in different languages.
Early LifeAsin was born on October 26, 1985, in Kochi city of Kerala. Her father Joseph Thottumkal, was a CBI officer turned businessman and her mother Seline Thottumkal is a surgeon. She did her schooling till Std 10th from Naval Public School in Kochi and later joined St.Teresa’s School to complete her schooling, followed by St.Teresa’s College for her Bachelor of Arts in English literature. After attaining the degree, Asin assisted her dad in his business and started modelling as well, which eventually led her to joining the South Indian movie industry.
Personal LifeThe gorgeous Asin found her prince charming in Rahul Sharma, the co-founder of Micromax and Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar played the cupid in getting the two lovers together. Asin and Rahul tied the knot in 2016.
Movie CareerAsin ventured into films with her debut being in a Malayali movie titled Narendran Makan Jayakanthan Vaka opposite actor Kunjachacko Boban in 2001. She then starred in a Telugu movie Amma Nanna O Tamila Ammayi opposite actor Ravi Teja. Her role of a Tamil girl in this movie won her the Telugu Filmfare Award for Best Actress.
From then there was no looking back for Asin. She won the Santosham Best Actress Award for her performance in the Telugu film Shivamani. She followed it up with few more successful Telugu films such as Lakshmi Narsimha and Gharshana in 2004. In the same year, Asin starred in her first Tamil flim M.Kumaran S/O Mahalakshmi, opposite Jayaram Ravi. She even got nominated for the Tamil Filmfare Best Actress Award for her performance in this movie.
Asin’s name began to be counted among the leading actresses in Tamil cinema after another Tamil flick Ullam Ketkumae (2005). It led to Asin focusing more on Tamil films. She won her first Tamil Filmfare Best Actress Award for her flawless portrayal of the character Kalpana in Ghajini, Tamil version in 2005. She followed up the blockbuster success of Ghajini with similar other hit Tamil movies like Sivakasi (2005), Varalaru (2006), Pokkiri (2007), Vel (2007), etc.
Asin experimented with her first ever double role in the Tamil flick Dasavathaaram in 2008, opposite megastar Kamal Haasan. Having established herself as one of the star actresses in Tamil cinema, Asin turned her attention to Bollywood and tasted instant success with Ghajini (2008 Hindi remake of the Tamil version), opposite star actor Aamir Khan. With such a scintillating Bollywood debut, she won the Filmfare Best Female Debut Award, and even got nominated for the Filmfare Best Actress Award.
Her next Hindi movie London Dreams had her star opposite popular actors like Salman Khan and Ajay Devgan, though the film received mixed response, Asin kept getting offers from big film-makers and got one chance after another to star with the top stars in Bollywood. Her next Hindi movies included Ready, opposite Salman Khan, Housefull 2 and Khiladi 786, opposite Akshay Kumar, and Bol Bachchan opposite Ajay Devgan. All of these movies managed to do business of over 100 crores, and Asin became a popular member of the Bollywood 100 Crore Club.