Girija Shettar (born 20 July 1969) is a British actress, known for her works in South Indian films. In 1989, Shettar starred in

Maniratnam 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 Na ...

's Telugu film '' Geethanjali'' and Malayalam film ''

Vandanam ''Vandanam'' () is a 1989 Indian Malayalam-language romantic comedy film directed by Priyadarshan, written by V. R. Gopalakrishnan, and produced by P. K. R. Pillai. The film stars Mohanlal and Girija Shettar, while Mukesh and Nedumudi Venu a ...

'', directed by

Priyadarshan Priyadarshan (born 30 January 1957) is an Indian film director, screenwriter and producer who works predominantly in Malayalam and Hindi films, while also having done six films in Tamil and two films in Telugu. He has done about 31 films in H ...

, in which she starred alongside

Mohanlal Mohanlal Viswanathan (born 21 May 1960), known mononymously as Mohanlal, is an Indian actor, film producer, playback singer, film distributor, and director who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema besides also having sporadically app ...

. In 1992, she signed for the lead female role in ''

Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar ''Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar'' () also abbreviated as ''JJWS'' is a 1992 Indian Hindi-language coming-of-age sports film, directed and co-written by Mansoor Khan, and produced and co-written by Nasir Hussain. The film stars Aamir Khan, Ayesha Jhulk ...

'', which she left mid-way to complete a prior commitment.

Ayesha Julka Ayesha Jhulka (born 28 July 1972) is an Indian actress who predominantly appears in Hindi films. She has also worked in Odia, Kannada and Telugu languages films. Career She has starred in films including '' Kurbaan'' (1991), ''Jo Jeeta Woh ...

replaced her after the first schedule. In the same year, she starred in another Telugu film '' Hrudayanjali'', under the direction of A. Raghurami Reddy, which won four Nandhi Awards by Government of Andra Pradesh. The film was completed in 1992 but was released only in 2002.

Personal life

Girija Shettar was born on 20 July 1969 in

Orsett Orsett is a village, former civil parish and ecclesiastical parish located within Thurrock unitary district in Essex, England, situated around 5 km north-east of Grays. In 1931 the parish had a population of 1771. History It has historic ...

, Essex to a

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 ...

doctor father and a British mother. From the age of 18, Girija trained in Bharatanatyam. She completed a doctoral thesis in Integral Yoga Philosophy and Indian spiritual psychology from

Cardiff University , latin_name = , image_name = Shield of the University of Cardiff.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms of Cardiff University , motto = cy, Gwirionedd, Undod a Chytgord , mottoeng = Truth, Unity and Concord , established = 1 ...

in 2003. She spends as much time as possible at Sri Aurobindo Ashram in

Puducherry Puducherry or Pondicherry may refer to: * Puducherry (union territory), a union territory of India ** Pondicherry, capital of the union territory of Puducherry ** Puducherry district, a district of the union territory of Puducherry ** Puducherry t ...

. Girija is currently a writer based in London. Previously working for a medical technology newsletter, she is now writing for a shipping magazine. A booklet of haiku poetry entitled "This Year, Daffodils" was published by Survivors' Poetry and the Esmee Fairburn Foundation, 2011. In 2014, she won Social Media Journalist of the Year as senior reporter for IHS Maritime Fairplay at Seahorse Journalist Awards, London. After the release of '' Geethanjali'', she appeared on the front page of

Screen (magazine) ''Screen'' was an Indian weekly film magazine published by Indian Express Limited. Established in 1951, it was owned by The Indian Express Group. The magazine was acquired by Star India in 2015 and subsequently ceased publication. The magaz ...

, India 30 June 1989 issue.''Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema'', by Ashish Rajadhyaksha and Paul Willemen, page 450. In 2002, ''Geethanjali'' was one of five films shown at the British Film Institute during a retrospective of Mani Ratnam's work. The films were chosen as examples of strong heroine roles in Indian films.

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shettar, Girija Living people 1969 births People from Orsett Auroville Actresses from Puducherry British film actresses British actresses of Indian descent Kannada people British expatriate actresses in India Actresses in Telugu cinema Actresses in Malayalam cinema Actresses in Hindi cinema European actresses in India European actresses in Bollywood Actresses of European descent in Indian films Actresses of European descent in Bollywood films English-language haiku poets 20th-century British actresses 21st-century British actresses