Star Portrait-Anushka Shetty

Anushka Shetty who is well known as Anushka to the film lovers is a sizzling actress who made her own mark without any filmy back ground. Her off-screen name is Sweety Shetty, She was born on 7th November 1982 in Mangalore, Karnataka. She born and brought up in culture family where her father A.N. Vittal Shetty is a bussiness man and her mother Prafulla Shetty is a home maker. She has two siblings Gunaranjan Shetty and Sai Ramesh Shetty. Tulu is her mother tongue and she is known as tommulu to her friends and relatives. She completed her schooling and college in Bangalore. She is a graduate in Computer Sciences at Mount Carmel College, Bangalore and she was also a Yoga instructor.  She learned practicing yoga from Bhoomika Chawla’s husband Bharat Thakur.

 Entry into Film Industry

 Anushka made her acting debut in 2005 with Telugu film “Super “opposite Akkineni Nagarjuna which was directed by Puri Jagannath. In the same year, she acted in another film “Mahanandi” where both the films were moderate success at box office. In 2006, she had four releases, the first being S. S. Rajamouli's “Vikramarkudu” pairing Ravi Teja, this film went on to become very successful and got her much recognition that ultimately made her very popular and leading actress in Telugu film industry.  Later she entered into Kollywood and there also she made her mark with her acting skills. From 2006 to till now she has been entertaining the audience with her films in different roles.  She was critically acclaimed in 2009 for her blockbuster hit, the fantasy film “Arundhati”. In this heroine-centric film, she essayed two roles for the first time and it was a critical as well as commercial success. Critics loaded praise on Anushka for her performance and after “Arundhati” she received same response for her character in “Vedam”.  Currently she is busy with Rajamouli’s prestigious bilingual venture “Bahubali” and Gunasekhar’s dream project “Rudrmadevi” in Telugu and with two more projects in Tamil.

 Special Activities.

 Recently for the first time in her career she dubs her own voice for herself in her recent release Telugu movie “Mirchi” and also she is set her voice to dubs for herself in the film “Irandam Ulagam” is a bilingual movie under direction Selvaragavan. She is also taking Tamil lessons classes. Although her mother language is Tulu she is trying hard to keep her dubbing activities herself only.

 Brand endorsement

 In addition of films Anushka also endorses a large number of brands. She is the brand ambassador for ‘Head and Shoulder’ in South. She endorses some jewellery stores like ‘MBS Jewellers’. She also endorsed the ‘Colgate brand’ in Tamil and Telugu by Replacing Trisha Krishnan alongside with stylish star Allu Arjun.

 Awards

 1) She nominated four times for Film Fare Awards in the Category of Best Actress and she won two twice as best actress.

 2) She won two Cine MAA Awrads.

 3) One Nandi Award as best actress.

 4)  One Gemini Ugdhi Award

 5) Two Santhosham Film Awards

 6) Two Vijay Awards

 7)  Nominated twice for Edison Awards

Damarukam success meet

http://youtu.be/SQUw7aKfYFI

Nagarjuna unlocks 'Damarukam' secrets

http://youtu.be/MljLncIqIM4

Damarukam review

 

Cast: Nagarjuna, Anushka, Prakash Raj, Ravi Shankar
Direction: Srinivas Redde
Genre: Fantasy
Duration: 2 hours 36 minutes

Synopsis: Andhakasura ( Ravi Shankar) is the last surviving asura (demon) who comes back from eons of hibernation to take revenge against the gods who decimated his race. But to realise his dream he needs to sacrifice Maheswari (Anushka). But he finds an unlikely nemesis in Mallikarjuna (Nagarjuna).

Movie Review: The movie lives up to its tag of being a "visual effects extravaganza", at least in terms of sheer quantity. With monsters, devils, sorcerers, gods, naga sadhus and the works. . .this movie probably packs more minutes of vfx than any other Telugu film.

But then quality of the computer generated gimmickry is much harder to ascertain. It depends on what the benchmark is, for they keep changing all the time. If you compare the visual experience with that of Kodi Ramakrishna's 1995 film, Ammoru, this movie would be miles ahead. But compared to Arundhati and Eega, the wizardry seems marginally better at best, save the menacing monster that crops up in the climax episode.

The film has a very simple premise. At the beginning of universe when the gods waged a war against asuras they manage to vanquish all except Andhakasura. Seething with revenge he disappears into oblivion waiting for an opportune time to for vendetta. It presents itself in the form of Maheshwari who is born with the blessings of goddess Parvati. If Andhakasura can marry her and offer her as a sacrifice to the dark forces on the day of total solar eclipse he will be blessed with the power to rule the universe. But to have his way, he first needs to vanquish Mallikarjuna, a protege of Lord Shiva, who stands in the way.

Now that's a decent premise to begin with but the characterization and narrative flow proves to be the film's undoing. Prakash Raj looks a tad tacky playing Lord Shiva and looks more like Swami Nithyanada with a straight nose. Ravi Shankar's get-up looks like a cheap imitation of the nepala manthrikudu character in Pathala Bhairavi. So perhaps more original imagination would have helped here. Brahmandam's comic track is funny in parts.

As far as performances go, well they are over the top but fall short of being good, save for Nagarjuna who essays his role with his trademark panache. Well, Anushka has little to do as far as performance goes and does a good job of upping the glam quotient.

The background score by Devisri Prasad is pretty impressive and the sound of the dhol and chantings about Lord Shiva reverberate all through the film. The songs are good too. The graphics are good but they just seem to have a video game feel to them. It's just that the movie doesn't come together as an experience.

Tip Off: As long as you go to the movie not expecting to be blown off your seat, you won't walk out disappointed.