Yeedi Vijayalakshmi (born 5 June 1976), known professionally as Rambha, is an Indian former actress. She was one of the prominent actresses in

Indian cinema The cinema of India, consisting of motion pictures made by the Indian film industry, has had a large effect on world cinema since the second half of the 20th century. Indian cinema is made up of various film industries, each focused on p ...

in the 1990s and early 2000s. In a career spanning almost two decades, Rambha had appeared in more than 100 films across eight languages, predominantly in

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of South India ** Telugu literature, is the body of works written in the Telugu language. * Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Tel ...

and

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 ...

, in addition to

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 ...

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

, and

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

, along with a few

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 ...

Bhojpuri Bhojpuri may refer to: * Bhojpuri language, an Indo-Aryan language of India and Nepal * Bhojpuri grammar, grammatical rules of the language * Bhojpuri nouns, nouns of the language * Bhojpuri people, people who speak the language * Bhojpuri region ...

and English films. Rambha made her debut with the Malayalam film '' Sargam''.

Early life and background

Rambha was born as Yeedi Vijayalakshmi in

Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh Vijayawada ( ), formerly known by its colonial name Bezawada, is the second largest city and a major commercial hub in the Andhra Pradesh state of India. The city forms an integral part of the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region and is situated on th ...

on 5 June 1976 into a

family.References for the subject's ethnicity:

She did her schooling at Atkinsons Senior Secondary School, Vijayawada. While she was studying in her seventh standard, she acted as '' Ammavaru'' (Mother Goddess) for her school's Annual Day competition. The event had been attended by director Hariharan who stayed in contact and later introduced her as the female lead in

film, '' Sargam''. Her first on-screen name was Amrutha, which she later changed as Rambha after the character name in her Telugu debut movie ''

Aa Okkati Adakku ''Aa Okkati Adakku'' () is a 1992 Indian Telugu-language comedy film directed by E. V. V. Satyanarayana, and produced by M. Saravanan and M. Balasubramaniam under the AVM Productions banner. The film stars Rajendra Prasad, Rambha, and Rao ...

''.

Career

Rambha gave up her education aged 15 and then started her career with Hariharan's

film '' Sargam'' (1992) opposite

Vineeth Vineeth Radhakrishnan (born 23 August 1969) is an Indian actor, Bharatanatyam dancer, voice artist and choreographer who primarily works in Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu language films. He has also appeared in a few Hindi and Kannada films. He h ...

. The film performed well at the box office, and she was spotted by director E. V. V. Satyanarayana who then cast her in the

film ''

'' (1992), where she was paired opposite Rajendra Prasad. The film performed well and prompted several films offers for the actress from several different film industries across India. During the height of her career in the late 1990s, Rambha deliberately continued to pick glamorous roles to garner film offers. In successful films such as ''

Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

'' (1997) starring

Chiranjeevi Konidela Chiranjeevi (born Konidela Sivasankara Varaprasad; 22 August 1955) is an Indian actor, philanthropist and former politician known for his work in Telugu cinema. Known as the "Mega Star", he is widely regarded as one of the most succe ...

, Rambha appeared in roles which were inconsequential to the plot and purely depicted as the lead actor's love interest. She started her career as a producer with help of her brother in ''

Three Roses ''3 Roses'' is a 2003 Indian Tamil-language action-adventure film directed by Parameswar, starring Rambha, Jyothika and Laila. The film features Vivek, Urvashi, Rekha Vedavyas in supporting roles. Karthik Raja composed the music and R ...

'' (2003), in which

Jyothika Jyothika Saravanan (; born 18 October 1978) is an Indian actress and producer who primarily works in Tamil, Hindi and Telugu films. She has received several accolades including a National Film Award, five Filmfare Awards South, four Tamil N ...

Laila Leila (, , ) is a feminine given name primarily found in the Middle East, including all Arab countries, as well as Iran, Turkey, and Israel. In the Latin alphabet, the name is commonly spelled in multiple ways, including Leila, Layla, Laylah, ...

and Rambha played the lead characters. She sold her house at Mount Road, Chennai in order to pay the debt, while she was also booked in a cheque-bounce case filed by the financiers of the movie. Rambha has acted in several languages and always maintained a successful balance in

and

. In 2010, Rambha shot alongside

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 Telugu language, Telugu, Tamil language, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, English language, Engl ...

for a thriller film titled ''Vidiyum Varai Kathiru''. The film was shot in three languages namely Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam, but the film did not have a theatrical release. After her marriage she had given up films as she felt her popularity in films has faded away where she notice that she was not getting meaty roles as she used to and has judged a very popular Tamil TV show ''

Maanada Mayilada ''Maanada Mayilada'' is an Indian dance competition show airing from 2007 till 2015 on Kalaignar TV. The show was conceived, produced and directed by noted choreographer Kala Master. She is also one of the judges and the only constant judge t ...

'', and the Telugu dance show '' Dhee''. After a long gap she came back from Toronto, she appeared as a judge of

Zee Telugu Zee Telugu is an Indian Telugu-language general entertainment pay television channel in India. It was launched on 12 September 2004 as '' Alpha TV Telugu''. and was rebranded as ''Zee Telugu'' on 18 May 2005. The channel is owned by Zee Entert ...

dance show ABCD-Anybody Can Dance and judged

Kings of Comedy Juniors Kings of Comedy Juniors () is a 2017 Indian Tamil-language children's stand-up comedy reality television show that airs on Vijay TV. The first season of the show began airing on 8 April 2017, and ended 17 September 2017 after airing 49 episodes. ...

Vijay TV 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 is a brand ambassador for Kolors health care, Chennai.

Personal life

Rambha married Indrakumar Pathmanathan, a Canada-based

Sri Lankan Tamil Sri Lankan Tamils ( or ), also known as Ceylon Tamils or Eelam Tamils, are Tamils native to the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka. Today, they constitute a majority in the Northern Province, form the plurality in the Eastern Province a ...

businessman, on 8 April 2010 at Karnataka Kalyana Mandapam in

Tirumala Tirumala is a Hindu religious temple town in Tirupati district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is one of the neighbourhoods of the Tirupati city. The town is a part of Tirupati Urban Development Authority and located in Tirupat ...

. They settled in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

. They have two daughters and a son.

Filmography

*''In the order of languages in which she appeared the most to the least.''

Telugu

Tamil

Hindi

Kannada

Malayalam

Other language films

Television

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rambha 1976 births Living people Indian film actresses Indian television actresses Telugu actresses Actresses in Bengali cinema Actresses in Bhojpuri cinema Actresses in Hindi cinema Actresses in Kannada cinema Actresses in Malayalam cinema Actresses in Tamil cinema Actresses in Telugu cinema Actresses in Telugu television Actresses in Tamil television Actresses from Vijayawada 20th-century Indian actresses 21st-century Indian actresses