Suvaluxmi (born 19 August 1977) is a former

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

actress who predominantly appeared in

Tamil films Tamil cinema, also known as Kollywood is a part of Indian Cinema; primarily engaged in production of motion pictures in the Tamil language. Based out of the Kodambakkam neighbourhood in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, it is popularly called ''Kollywo ...

. She also appeared in

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

films.

Career

As a child, Suvaluxmi was passionate about Indian classical and folk dance forms and performed the art forms across regional shows. Her performance on stage was noticed by film director

Satyajit Ray Satyajit Ray (; 2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian director, screenwriter, documentary filmmaker, author, essayist, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligrapher, and music composer. One of the greatest auteurs of fil ...

, who cast her as the female lead in the film adaptation of his story ''

Uttoran ''The Broken Journey'' ( bn, Uttoran) is a 1994 Bengali drama film directed by Sandip Ray. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival. It won the National Film Award for Best Screenplay at the 41st Nationa ...

'' (1994). The film, which was completed by his son

Sandip Ray Sandip Ray (born 8 September 1953) is an Indian film director and music director who mainly works in Bengali cinema. He is the only child of the famous Bengali director Satyajit Ray and Bijoya Ray. Life and education Sandip Ray was born in C ...

following Satyajit Ray's demise, won the

National Film Award for Best Screenplay The National Film Award for Best Screenplay is one of the categories in the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in India. It is one o ...

in 1994 and was screened in film festivals around the world, including at Cannes. Alongside graduating with a degree of Bachelor of Laws from the

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate State university (India), state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered ...

in 1998, Suvaluxmi acted as the female protagonist in several movies in South Indian languages. She made her debut in Tamil films with ''

Aasai ''Aasai'' () () is a 1995 Indian Tamil-language romantic thriller film, written and directed by Vasanth and produced by Mani Ratnam. The film stars Ajith Kumar and debutant Suvaluxmi, with Prakash Raj, Rohini, Poornam Viswanathan, Nizhalgal Ra ...

'' (1995), a romantic thriller film directed by

Vasanth Vasanth is an Indian director well known in Tamil language films for directing films such as ''Keladi Kanmani'' (1990), ''Aasai'' (1995), ''Nerrukku Ner'' (1997), ''Rhythm'' (2000) and ''Satham Podathey'' (2007). Career Vasanth began his car ...

and produced by

Mani Ratnam Gopala Ratnam Subramaniam (born 2 June 1956), known professionally as Mani Ratnam, is an Indian film director, screenwriter, and producer who predominantly works in Tamil cinema and few Hindi, Telugu and Kannada films. Ratnam has won six Nat ...

. Suvaluxmi portrayed Yamuna and paired opposite

Ajith Kumar Ajith Kumar (born 1 May 1971) is an Indian actor who works predominantly in Tamil films. To date, he has starred in over 60 films. His awards include four Vijay Awards, three Cinema Express Awards, three Filmfare Awards South and three Tamil N ...

, with her character being vigorously pursued by her brother-in-law, portrayed by

Prakash Raj Prakash Raj (born Prakash Rai; 26 March 1965) is an Indian actor, film director, producer, television presenter, and politician. Known for his works in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, and Malayalam-language films, he is the recipient of several ...

. Upon release, the film won positive reviews and performed well at the box office, with all three lead actors getting a boost in their career. Balsekaran's '' Love Today'' (1997) opposite Vijay, also performed well commercially. Despite the success of these two films, Suvaluxmi's subsequent films failed to expand her initial popularity and she felt that the rise of glamorous roles for female actors in Tamil films, meant that she found it difficult to find apt characters to portray and was typecast as a homely girl. In the late 1990s, she appeared in several Tamil films, though her roles and the performance of her films failed to get acclaim. In 2001, she opted to quit films and pursue a career as a lawyer and finally signed up to appear in

Ponvannan Ponvannan (born Shanmugam; 23 September 1963) is an Indian actor and director who has worked in Tamil cinema and television. After beginning his career as an artist (painter), Ponvannan apprenticed as a director and writer under Bharathiraja. H ...

's critically acclaimed film ''

Nadhi Karaiyinile ''Nadhi Karaiyinile'' () is a 2003 Tamil language drama film, written and directed by Ponvannan. The film, which had an initial release at international film festivals with the title ''Jameela'', stars Suvalakshmi, Rajan P. Dev and Ramji. The ...

'' (2003), for which she won positive reviews, with

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

noting she gave a "heartrending enactment". She was a leading actress from 1994 till 2001 and successfully completed 8 years in silver screen. After her marriage, in 2007 she turned down an offer from

Mohan Raja Mohan Raja is an Indian filmmaker and screenwriter who primarily works in Tamil and Telugu film industries. After making his debut in the Telugu cinema, Telugu film ''Hanuman Junction (film), Hanuman Junction'' (2001), he went on to remake seve ...

to portray a supporting role in ''

Santosh Subramaniam ''Santosh Subramaniam'' (spelt ''Santhosh Subramaniyam'' onscreen) is a 2008 Indian Tamil-language romantic comedy film directed by Mohan Raja and produced by Kalpathi S. Agoram. The film stars Jayam Ravi and Genelia while Prakash Raj, Geeth ...

'' (2008) and restated her retirement from films. Since her departure from the film industry, Suvaluxmi pratices as a natural artist and graduated with a degree of Masters of Fine Arts in Illustration during 2013 from the

Academy of Art University The Academy of Art University (AAU or ART U), formerly Academy of Art College and Richard Stephens Academy of Art, is a private for-profit art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded as the Academy of Advertising Art by Richard S. S ...

in San Francisco.

Personal life

She married Professor Swagato Banerjee in 2002 and lived in

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

and then in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

Filmography

Television

* 2001-2002 ''Soolam'' as Parvathi/Amman

References

External links

* {{authority control Living people Tamil actresses 1977 births Actresses in Tamil cinema Tamil Nadu State Film Awards winners Actresses from Kolkata Academy of Art University alumni Actresses in Bengali cinema Actresses in Kannada cinema Actresses in Malayalam cinema Actresses in Telugu cinema 20th-century Indian actresses 21st-century Indian actresses Actresses in Tamil television