Ophelia Santhaselvi, popularly known as Imsai Arasi ("Queen of Mischief") and RJ Ophelia (RJ Ophe for short), is an Indian television show host and former

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 ...

based in

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

. She is best known for her unique voice and Tamil slang, humour and rapid speaking rate. She has worked at 92.7 BIG FM and at 94.3 Radio One. Though mainly a radio jockey, she is also active in other fields such as emceeing, television, social media,

films A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of Visual arts, visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are gen ...

Early life

Ophelia was born in a

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 ...

middle-class family in

Chennai, Tamil Nadu Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

. Her father wanted to give her a "rare name" and named her after

Ophelia Ophelia () is a character in William Shakespeare's drama ''Hamlet'' (1599–1601). She is a young noblewoman of Denmark, the daughter of Polonius, sister of Laertes and potential wife of Prince Hamlet. Due to Hamlet's actions, Ophelia ultima ...

, the character from

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's ''

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

''. Her father is a retired Traffic Manager of Metropolitan Transport Corporation, while her mother works for

Bharat Petroleum Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited is an Indian public sector oil and gas company, headquartered in Mumbai. It is India's second-largest government-owned downstream oil producer, whose operations are overseen by the Ministry of Petroleum and ...

. She has a younger brother. Ophelia did her schooling at Holy Angels Convent, T. Nagar and graduated in commerce from Stella Maris College. During her college days, the joy of performing on stage for cultural events and plays made her realize she wanted to be in media, and she went on to do her post-graduation in

mass communication Mass communication is the process of imparting and exchanging information through mass media to large population segments. It utilizes various forms of media as technology has made the dissemination of information more efficient. Primary examples o ...

from

M.O.P. Vaishnav College for Women M.O.P. Vaishnav College for Women (Autonomous) is an arts and science college located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu in southern India. It is affiliated with the University of Madras. The current principal is Dr. Archna Prasad. According to the survey ...

. She has said that even then she was afraid of talking to strangers, and it was her internship at the

Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language India, Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932 by P. Varadarajulu Naidu. It is headquartered in Noida, owned by the Indian Express Limited, ''Indian Express Group''. It was later taken over by Ramnat ...

that helped overcome the fear. In 2006, she was one of four radio jockeys selected by the then upcoming 92.7 BIG FM after a two-month audition process of thousands of candidates.

Career

Radio

Ophelia worked at BIG FM for seven years since June 2006. She hosted the afternoon and later the morning shows, during which time she gained popularity as RJ Imsai Arasi for her humor and style of speech. Her lively afternoon radio shows were markedly different from other placid shows in the same time-band and changed the perception that noon shows were supposed to be calm and mild. After quitting Big FM, she moved to 94.3 Radio One in 2013 and hosted their evening prime-time show for two years. Currently, she works as a freelancer.

Television

In 2012, Ophelia started her television career anchoring School Savari, a weekend kids show on Chutti TV. In 2013, she hosted Studio 6, a weekly celebrity interview show on

Zee Tamil Zee Tamil is an Indian Tamil language pay television general entertainment channel owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. The channel started broadcasting on 2008 and is available internationally. The channel broadcasts from Guindy, Chennai, ...

. Later that year, she moved on to host Comedyil Kalakkuvathu Eppadi, a weekly skit-based comedy show on

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 ...

. She has also anchored several standalone shows of prominent Tamil television channels, and also appeared as a guest or participant in various chat and game shows.

Awards

Ophelia was recognized as the Best Female RJ for the years 2009 and 2012 in the annual Vikatan Awards given by ''

Ananda Vikatan ''Ananda Vikatan'' is a Tamil-language weekly magazine published from Chennai, India. History ''Ananda Vikatan'' was started by Late Pudhoor Vaidyanadhaiyar in February 1926 as a monthly publication. The issue for December 1927 was not publishe ...

'', a leading

weekly Magazine. She has won the RJ of the Year (Tamil) award at the Indian Excellence in Radio Awards (IRF) in 2009 and 2010; her show ''Jill Jill Neram'' was also named the Best Programme Broadcast after 11 am (Tamil) in 2010.

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ophelia, RJ Living people Indian radio presenters Television personalities from Tamil Nadu Year of birth missing (living people)