Meet actress, whose Bollywood debut was a flop, did superhit song with Shah Rukh Khan, married a Muslim, is now..., her name is...
Today, we will highlight the journey of this National-Award winning actress who worked in all five languages, and managed to garner success across all these industries. After a successful career in films, she attained a new league of fans with her role of 'Suchi' in Family Man, opposite Manoj Bajpayee. She is none other Pan-India star Priyamani.
Priyamani began her acting journey at the age of 18. He first film was the Telugu film Evare Atagaadu in 2003. She catapulted into success after winning a National Award for best actress in the 2007 Tamil film Paruthiveeran.
Priya made her Bollywood debut in Mani Ratnam's Raavan , where she played a supporting role opposite Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan. In 2013, she captivated audience with her energetic moves in item song 1-2-3-4 with Shah Rukh Khan in Chennai Express. Following that, she continued making waves with pan-India projects such as The Family Man and Article 370. Throughout the years, Priya consistently showcased her acting prowess and cemented a space for herself in Indian cinema.
Her last theatrical release Offical on Duty released on 20 February, 2025, starring Kunchacko Boban in the lead. She portrayed the role of Chackochan's wife, a strong-willed college-professor, who believes and stands for the right thing.
In 2017, Priyamani tied the knot with Mustafa Raj, an event manager-turned-film director. In an interview, Priya revealed how their interfaith marriage became the reason for them to receive backlash online. While speaking to Filmfare, she said, 'When I announced my engagement, I just wanted to share this happy moment with people whom I honestly believed genuinely cared for me. However, I don't know for what rhyme or reason, unnecessary hate started pouring in, and the love jihad accusations followed. They even went to the extent of saying that, when we have kids tomorrow, they would join ISIS.'
The actress added while she understood people wanting to say things to celebs, but the comments affected her immensely. 'I understand that since I belong to the media and the film industry, you can say what you want. But why do you want to attack somebody who is not at all (a part of these things)? You don't even know who that person is. It took a toll on me for 2-3 days because I kept getting a lot of messages. Even now, if I post something with him, nine out of ten comments will be about our religion or caste,' Priya said.
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