Bhavana Balakrishnan (born 25 May 1985) is an Indian

television anchor A television presenter (or television host, some become a "television personality") is a person who introduces or hosts television show, television programs, often serving as a mediator for the program and the audience. It is common for people ...

, cricket commentator,

video jockey A video jockey (abbreviated VJ or sometimes veejay) is an announcer or host who introduces music videos and live performances on commercial music television channels such as MTV, VH1, Much (TV channel), MuchMusic and Channel V. Origins The term " ...

playback singer A playback singer, as they are usually known in South Asian cinema, or ghost singer in Western cinema, is a singer whose performance is pre-recorded for use in films. Playback singers record songs for soundtracks, and the performers lip-sync the ...

and dancer. She is one of the most popular sports journalists in India after Mayanti Langer. She currently works as a broadcaster for Star Sports and has hosted several programmes for the channel. Balakrishnan was one of the women to commentate during the

2019 Cricket World Cup The 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup was the 12th Cricket World Cup, a quadrennial One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament contested by men's national teams and organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). The tournament was hosted bet ...

. Bhavana mostly does her hosting and presenting work in

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

, while also being fluent in

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

Career

Balakrishnan began her career as a

radio jockey A radio personality is a person who has an on-air position in radio broadcasting. A radio personality who hosts a radio show is also known as a radio host (North American English), radio presenter (British English) or radio jockey. Radio personal ...

for a brief period and ventured into television. She joined

Raj TV Raj TV is a Tamil language Indian general entertainment channel based in Chennai, India, which was launched on 14 October 1994. Rajtv became as the second most popular channel in Tamil. It is available through digital and mobile entertainment ...

as a host, and the first television show she hosted was ''Beach Girls Show''. She later joined

Star Vijay Star Vijay is an Indian Tamil language general entertainment pay television channel owned by JioStar, a joint venture between Viacom18 and Disney India. The channel telecasts programmes such as serials, reality shows & Tamil films. History T ...

channel and became a full-time anchor with the channel in 2011. Her first programme with Vijay TV was '' Super Singer Junior'', and she also hosted ''

Airtel Super Singer Airtel Super Singer is a 2006 Indian Tamil-language reality television singing competition, that was sponsored by KAG Tiles for the tenth season. The show is televised in India on Vijay TV, and worldwide through partner broadcasting networks ...

'' until 2017. She has hosted other shows with the channel including the "Fun Unlimited" season of '' Jodi Number One''. In 2017, she joined Star Sports as a sports journalist and hosted broadcasts of for the

Indian Premier League The Indian Premier League (IPL) is a professional Twenty20 (T20) cricket league in India, organised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Founded in 2007, it features ten city-based Professional sports league organization, fr ...

(IPL) and

Pro Kabaddi League The Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) is an Indian professional Kabaddi league for men. It premiered in 2014 and airs on Star Sports. It is the most popular kabaddi league in the world and the third most watched sports league in India after the India ...

. She served as a commentator for Star Sports Tamil during the 2018 IPL season and was one of just two female presenters during the

2018 Indian Premier League The 2018 Indian Premier League season (also known as IPL 11 and branded as Vivo IPL 2018) was the eleventh season of the Indian Premier League, a professional Twenty20 cricket league established by the BCCI in 2007. The season, which was held f ...

. In 2019, she hosted the Tamil version of Indian celebrity talk show ''

Famously Filmfare Famously Filmfare is an Indian talk show created by Filmfare in association with Content Studio, providing an intimate glimpse into the personal and professional lives of prominent figures from the Indian film industry. It debuted in 2017 with i ...

.'' Balakrishnan made her debut as singer in 2018 and released her first single ''The MashUp Series by BB''.

Personal life

She married Mumbai based businessman Nikhil Ramesh and currently resides in

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Balakrishnan, Bhavana 1986 births Living people Indian female dancers Indian women singers Indian women television presenters Indian sports journalists Indian sports broadcasters Indian women television journalists Indian television journalists People from Chennai 21st-century Indian women musicians 21st-century Indian dancers 21st-century Indian women writers