Career:
Amala Paul, after finishing her Plus Two education, took a year out before planning to pursue engineering for further education. At the time, her modelling portfolio was spotted by noted Malayalam director Lal Jose who offered her a supporting role in his remake, Neelathamara (2009). Despite emerging a success, the film failed to attract any further offers, as she had anticipated. She pursued roles in Tamil films and went on to sign the low-budget comedy film Vikadakavi, which is still in post-production, before signing on to play the lead role in another small budget film Veerasekaran (2010). The film, which became her maiden Tamil release, was panned by critics and went completely unnoticed, while Amala's role was being labelled as 'minimal', and she later cited that she regretted doing the film and many of her scenes were edited out.
Amala Paul then went on to work in Samy's controversial Sindhu Samaveli (2010), portraying the role of Sundari, who has an illicit relationship with her father-in-law. The director of the film had previously drawn criticism for his depictions of illicit romances as well for assaulting his previous lead actress in a film, but Amala played down the issue citing that she had no problem with the director. She was approached after the major portions of her next release, Mynaa were ready and signed on before listening to the entirety of the story, claiming that she was shocked but not upset with the controversial scenes which she heard later. Upon release, the film met with contrasting reviews, whilst some critics refused to give the film a rating, declaring their disgust at the film's plot. Amala's performance won her critical acclaim. However her success was marred with extreme reactions from the public, with Amala claiming she received death threats from anonymous callers and was publicly scolded by women at a cinema hall in Chennai. Amala's next release, the romantic drama film Mynaa (2010) by Prabhu Solomon, made her a recognised actress in the industry. The film had garnered much anticipation prior to release, with noted distributors Udhayanidhi Stalin and Kalpathi S. Aghoram purchasing the rights of the film after being impressed with it. Amala played the village belle Mynaa, attaining unanimous praise from critics for her portrayal; a critic labelled her work as "outstanding" and that she put in a "riveting performance", while other reviews claimed she had "immense talent" and scores in "every instance" in the title role. The film, which also saw her gain recognition from noted actors Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth, subsequently became a large commercial success at the box-office.
Following the success of Mynaa, Amala became touted as the "new star of 2011" as she subsequently signed on to several prominent projects. She has signed six big budget films with established stars since, with two films opposite Vikram in Deiva Magan and a yet to be titled Suseenthiran project. She will then appear in the bilingual Vettai and its Telugu version Veta opposite leading actors Arya and Mahesh Babu under Linguswamy's direction. Moreover, she has also signed the romantic musical Muppozhudhum Un Karpanai opposite Adharvaa and the Telugu film Oh My Friend which also features Siddharth and Amrita Rao. Amala also has three smaller films in production, the first being her maiden Tamil assignment, Vikadakavi. The others include a film with Vimal in an untitled venture directed by Pandiraj and another Malayalam film.
Personal Life:
Amala was born in 1991 in Ernakulam, Kerala to Christian Malayali parents, Paul Varghese and Annice Paul. After completing her Plus Two examinations, she took a sabbatical to begin a career in films, but has since joined St. Teresa's College in Kochi, to pursue further education and is currently in her second year. Her father had been strictly against Amala pursuing a acting career, but was forced to accept her decision with her brother strongly backing her ambition. Amala had changed her on-screen name to Anaka, On director Samy's insistence, who cited that another actress, Amala had already made her name popular. However, after the failure of Sindhu Samaveli, she reverted to her birth name since she felt that the replacement had brought her bad luck.
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