Priyanka Upendra

Priyanka Upendra (née Trivedi) is an Indian actress who predominantly appears in Kannada Language films.

Early life

Priyanka was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata). Her mother is from West Bengal and father from Uttar Pradesh. She spent ten years of her schooling life in the US and about three years in Singapore, before graduating with a commerce degree from a college in Kolkata. She described herself as "little introverted, pretty flexible as a person, a good listener and overtly sensitive." She appeared in television commercials for brands such as Britannia, Orient Electric and Pillsbury in the late 1990s. During this time, she was cast by director Basu Chatterjee in his first Bengali film, ''Hothat Brishti'' (1998). She went on to make two more films with him, ''Chupi Chupi'' (2001) and ''Tak Jhal Mishti'' (2002).

Career

Beginnings

Priyanka subsequently moved to Mumbai and acted in the Hindi film ''Mujhe Meri Biwi Se Bachaao'' (2001). She then began receiving offers for South Indian films, and went on make Telugu films '' Soori'' and '' Raa'', the former of which was remade in Hindi as ''Durga'' with Priyanka acting in that too; ''H2O'' and ''Kotigobba'' in Kannada; and ''Raajjiyam'', ''Raja'', ''Kadhal Sadugudu'' and ''Jananam'' in Tamil.

2015–present

In 2015, she starred in ''Priyanka'', a film based on a real-life incident involving a murder where a 27-year-old man killed another man whose wife he was in love with. Released in 2016, the film was received well by critics and her performance received praise. S. Viswanath of ''Deccan Herald'' felt that Priyanka turned in "with a polished show as the doting, Facebook-addicted wife." In her second release of the year, the horror film ''Mummy'', Priyanka played a widow and a mother to a young girl and pregnant with a second child, who move in to a haunted villa. Her performance was received well by critics. A. Sharadhaa of ''The New Indian Express'' called the film "technically brilliant" and that "Priyanka carries the film on her shoulders with ease..." In '' 2nd Half'', her only release of 2018, she played Anuradha, a police constable, who takes it upon herself to solve a case after receiving no support from her superiors. Critic Sharadhaa felt, "Priyanka carries a lot of responsibility on her shoulders. Being the central focus of the film, she has ample scope to perform and does justice to her role." In H. Lohith's crime-thriller ''Devaki'' (2019), who also directed ''Mummy'', Priyanka played a mother who frantically searches the streets of Kolkata for her kidnapped daughter (played by real-life daughter, Aishwarya) with the help of a police officer. Vivek M. V. of ''Deccan Herald'' wrote of her performance, "Priyanka is earnest but for the most part, she is in tears. We wonder if she could have brought out other facets like anxiety, fear and the pain of a single mother separated from her daughter. Thankfully, she makes it up in the final scene."

In her first release after ''Devaki'', a period film ''1980'', set in the same year as the title, Priyanka played a novelist. The film explored the concept of an alternate universe. It was released on the OTT platform Namma Flix on 15 October 2021. Critic Prathibha Joy wrote for ''Ottplay.com'' that the film lacked "execution" despite having an "intriguing narrative" and " he makers'best efforts, most notably by lead actress Priyanka Upendra..."

Filmography

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Upendra, Priyanka
Indian film actresses
Actresses in Tamil cinema
Living people
Bengali actresses
Actresses from Kolkata
Actresses in Kannada cinema
21st-century Indian actresses
Actresses in Telugu cinema
Actresses in Bengali cinema
Year of birth missing (living people)