Vishakha Singh

Vishakha Singh
Vishakha Singh in July 2013
Occupation	Actress, producer

Vishakha Singh is an Indian film actress and producer.

She appeared in South Indian language films, before starring in Bollywood projects with Oscar nominee director Ashutosh Gowariker's 2010 period piece Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey, alongside Abhishek Bachchan and Deepika Padukone. She was nominated for Best Breakthrough Performance of the Year in 2010, for the same role by StarDust Awards.

She also works as a part time venture capitalist in her father's company based out of London and Dubai. She is a frequent figure on the Red Carpet at the Cannes Film Festivaland was part of the producers workshop at the Festival de Cannes in 2014. Vishakha has been invited to be on the jury of one of Rome's biggest film festivals for independent Italian and European filmmakers, Rome Independent Film Festival (RIFF) on May 2015.She is also one of the committee members of Srishti Madurai.

Career

She did her schooling from Abu Dhabi Indian School (ADIS) and Delhi Public School.She completed her graduation in business studies from Delhi University.She said that she wanted to be a teacher and did her post graduation in advertising and public relations. She started modelling in 2007 and appeared in many television and print commercials.She made her feature film debut with a Telugu film Gnaapakam in 2008, which did not do well.After that, she starred in one Tamil, and two Kannada films, 'Antaraatma' and 'Housefull'.

She made her Hindi film debut with Hum Se Jahan, which was never released on DVD and only in theatres, in 2008. However she got noticed in director Ashutosh Gowarikar's Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey for which she received a "Best Breakthrough Performance – Female" nomination from Stardust Awards (2011). She acted in Abhijeet Sengupta's Do Aur Do Paanch, which did not release.

In 2012 Vishakha ventured into film production by co-producing Peddlers, a film directed by Vasan Bala. The other producers were Guneet Monga and Anurag Kashyap Films. Peddlers was selected at the critic week at the Cannes Film Festival. She has also co produced Haraamkhor, directed by Shlok Sharma, with Guneet Monga and AKFPL. The film is set to release in 2015. After three years she made a comeback to acting in Tamil films. Vishakha's second Tamil film Kanna Laddu Thinna Aasaiya released on 13 January 2013 and which went onto become the first blockbuster of the Tamil film industry in that year. Back in Bollywood she signed on three films that released in succession in 2013. Her first two films were Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani's Fukrey and Vikram Bhatt's Ankur Arora Murder Case both the films released on 14 June 2013. Her third film was director Shahant Shah's Bhajathe Raho which released the next month. She said that Fukrey made a lot of difference and changed people's perceptions and that she turned down nine films after Fukrey.

Vishakha also made her Malayalam debut in director Rajesh Pillai's forthcoming film Motorcycle Diaries, and her next Tamil film is with Vaaliba Raja, with the same team that worked on Kanna Laddu Thinna Aasaiya. She returns to Telugu films with Rowdy Fellow, opposite Nara Rohit and has stated that she plays "a girl who looks like an angel but is a devil in disguise".She is also acting in The Maya Tape, a horror thriller, directed by Nikhil Alag, in which she plays a journalist. She was signed for an important role in the film, albeit a cameo role, in R. Kannan's Oru Oorla Rendu Raja.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Language	Notes
2007	Gnaapakam	Sarangi	Telugu
2008	Pidichirukku	Manju Mariyadas	Tamil
2008	Humsey Hai Jahaan	Esha Singh	Hindi
2009	Housefull	Aishwarya	Kannada
2010	Antharathma	Mahi Shyam	Kannada
2010	The Genius of Beauty		English
2010	Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey	Pritilata Waddedar	Hindi	Nominated, Stardust Award for Breakthrough Performance – Female
2013	Kanna Laddu Thinna Aasaiya	Sowmiya	Tamil
2013	Ankur Arora Murder Case	Dr. Riya	Hindi
2013	Fukrey	Neetu	Hindi
2013	Bajatey Raho	Manpreet	Hindi
2014	Rowdy Fellow	Meghana	Telugu
2014	The Maya Tape		Hindi	Filming
2014	Motorcycle Diaries		Malayalam
2014	Vaaliba Raja	Shalu	Tamil
2014	Thuram		Telugu	Filming
2014	Oru Oorla Rendu Raja	Kalpana	Tamil