Gayathrie

Gayathrie Shankar is a Tamil film actress, who appears in leading roles. She debuted in 2012 with 18 Vayasu, and is best known for her role in Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom. She has since featured in various movies like Ponmaalai Pozhudhu, Rummy, Oru Nalla Naal Paathu Solren, Puriyatha Puthir, etc. Vella Raja saw her dabble in web series. She will be seen in Super Deluxe and Maamanithan in 2019.

Personal life 
Gayathrie's family is of Tamil origin and she grew up in Bangalore, Karnataka. Her grandfather from Trichy worked as an army officer. Her father too was in the Indian Air Force. He later joined a bank. In fact both of her parents work as bankers. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and is a trained Hypnotherapist.

The story of her journey to the big screen is straight out of a fairy-tale. She was in 12th class when she got her first film offer, Yean Ippadi Mayakkinai, directed by N. Krishna. It was purely by luck that she bagged the role. She was spotted while she was at a bowling alley with her friends, screen tested a few days later and signed on for the lead role. Although the audio of the movie was launched, it could not be released due to legal issues. She went back to complete her studies but continued to get subsequent offers. She signed 18 Vayasu, Ponmaalai Pozhuthu and Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom while still in college. She completed her degree and decided to pursue her acting career.

She is a polyglot and can speak Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu, Hindi and a bit of Marathi. She wishes to learn Spanish someday. 

She has always been a nature lover and compassionate towards animals. She has actively volunteered at CUPA in Bangalore and continues to be of service to animals in Chennai, at BMAD. She learnt snake catching from renowned conservationist Gowri Shankar, in a workshop organised by the Forest Department. 

Gayathrie picked up sports pretty late in life. She took to Ultimate Frisbee when she was introduced to it in Chennai. She feels sports changed her life and believes girls should be encouraged to play sports. She wishes to be a part of a sports film one day.

She decided to direct a short film "on an impulse" for the eighth edition of India Film Project. Her short film 'Shit Happens' won in its category. Although she doesn't nurture ambitions of directing a feature film, she says the whole experience was very empowering.

She has been an adventure enthusiast, which prompted her to be a part of Vijay Tv's adventure based reality show Atcham Thavir.

Career 

The actress's first release was the psychological thriller 18 Vayasu, but was recognized for her work in Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom alongside Vijay Sethupathi. In 2013 she starred in two films, Ponmaalai Pozhudhu and Mathapoo. She was next seen in Vijay Sethupathi in Rummy, a 1980s college love story, which also featured Iyshwarya Rajesh.

The multi-starrer Ula, was renamed Chithiram Pesuthuadi 2 and saw a release in 2019. The movie is directed by Rajan Madhav of Muran fame, also starred Radhika Apte, Priya Banerjee, Vidharth and Dwayne Bravo. Puriyatha Puthir directed by Ranjit Jeyakodi co-starring with Vijay Sethupathi, released in 2017.  Oru nalla naal paathu solren directed by debutant Arumugakumar was a dark comedy starring Vijay Sethupathi, Gautham Karthik and NIharika Konidela. The movie released on 2 February 2018. Seethakathi released on 20 December 2018. She worked as an assistant director on Seethakathi, directed by Balaji Tharaneetharan. She also featured in a cameo in Seethakathi. 2018 also saw her foraying into web series. She played Aadhira, in the Amazon Prime exclusive series called Vella Raja.

2019 will see the release of the much awaited Super Deluxe, directed by Thiagarajan Kumararaja, starring Vijay Sethupathi, Samantha Akkineni, Fahadh Faasil, Ramya Krishnan, Mysskin among others. She is currently working on Maamanithan, directed by Seenu Ramasamy, costarring Vijay Sethupathi.

She will also be seen in cameos in the yet to be released movies, Titanic and K13.

Filmography

References

External links 
 
 

Category:Living people
Category:Actresses from Bangalore
Category:Actresses in Tamil cinema
Category:21st-century Indian actresses
Category:Tamil actresses
Category:Indian film actresses
Category:1993 births