Pooja Devariya

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Pooja Devariya
Pooja Devariya.jpg
Born
Pooja Balu

(1991-07-29) 29 July 1991 (age 32)
Bengaluru, Karnataka
OccupationTheatre, Film Actor, Performance Coach, Founder-Scout & Guide Media
Years active2009 - present
Websitehttps://www.poojadevariya.com/

Pooja Devariya (born 29 July 1991) is an Indian theatre and film actor as well as a performance coach who works primarily in Tamil films, alongside a Kannada film. She started her film acting career with Selvaraghavan’s Mayakkam Enna, and has gone on to win several awards including Vikatan’s Best Supporting Actress award for her performance in Kuttrame Thandanai.

Pooja is also the founder and creative director of Scout & Guide Media, an actors’ studio & production house, with her partner Sumanth Shetty.

Early life

Pooja Devariya was born on 29 July 1991, to Balu Namasivayam and Pushpa Devariya in Bengaluru, India. She also goes by the patronym, Pooja Balu. A big part of her formative years was spent in Abacus Montessori School, Chennai, to which Pooja credits her personality development and healthy curiosity. She is also a jazz and ballet dancer, having trained in Jeffery Vardon’s Hotshoe Dance Academy, alongside silambattam, a martial arts style from Tamil Nadu which she was trained in by Pandian Master, well-known trainer in Tamil film industry. In addition, she is an accomplished rower and is a National Rowing Medalist[1][2][3]

Career

Starting in various minor roles and as a dancer to eventually starring alongside some of Tamil film industry’s biggest names, Pooja’s acting career spans the theatre and film industry over 10 years.

Theatre

After working with many theatre groups in Chennai in various capacities, Pooja became the principal actor and one of the directors with the theatre company Stray Factory[4][5] This association lasted till 2016, during which time she was the recipient of numerous acting and directing awards including Short+Sweet Theatre Festival’s Best Actress Award for Stray Factory’s Carpouram. Pooja was to forge a strong connection with the founder of Short + Sweet Theatre Festival franchise, Mark Cleary. His guidance and mentorship drove Pooja to expand her repertoire and perform her plays in multiple countries. One such performance of her play, My name is Cine-maa in Hollywood won her the Emerging Artist Award[6][7] and also bagged her multiple Best Actress awards in Chennai, Mumbai and Malaysia[8]

It was during this time that she also worked under director Yosup Bae (Founder and Director of Tuida) in South Korea for a physical theatre performance titled Bahuchara Matha (Beyond Binary). This collaboration solidified her as a performance-focused actor and Pooja considers Yosup Bae to be a big influence on her acting trajectory.

Films

Pooja’s entry into the Tamil Film Industry was in 2011, when she played the role of Dhanush’s friend Padmini in Selvaraghavan’s Mayakkam Enna, She was widely praised for her portrayal of Malarvizhi in the 2016 Karthik Subbaraj flick Iraivi[9][10] She won the Behindwoods Gold Medal for Best Actress Critics Choice for this role.

The same year, her performance in M. Manikandan’s Kuttrame Thandanai received rave reviews[11][12] bagging her yet another gold medal from Behindwoods and the Best Supporting Actress award from the prestigious Vikatan Awards.

In 2018, Pooja made her Kannada debut with the film Kadheyondu Shruvagide, directed by Senna Hegde[13]

Performance coaching

In 2020, Pooja Devariya founded Scout & Guide Media with her partner Sumanth Shetty. An actors’ studio & production house, Pooja’s work with Scout & Guide Media involves training new and established actors, and being the bridge between the director’s vision and the actor’s performance[14] While the concept of a performance coach is very prevalent in Hollywood and European films, it is a relatively recent phenomenon in the Indian Film Industry. Pooja worked extensively with director Bharat Bala on Netflix’s anthology, Navarasa[15] The entire title sequence was shot using Bolt, a robot used for extremely high-speed cameras. Pooja helped Bharat Bala figure out the best acting techniques/expressions that can work in this set up for the title sequence[16][17]

Her most notable work in this field has been for Lokesh Kanagaraj’s 2022 Kamal Haasan starrer Vikram, in which she was the performance coach for Vijay Sethupathi[18] with particular emphasis on his unique body language for this role. Her association with Vijay Sethupathi has been a long one[19][20][21] and she is his performance coach for both the upcoming Sriram Raghavan film Merry Christmas and Kishor Pandurang Belekar’s upcoming silent feature Gandhi Talks.

Filmography

  • All films are in Tamil, unless otherwise noted.
Year Film Role Notes
2011 Mayakkam Enna Padmini
2016 Aandavan Kattalai Aarthi
2016 Iraivi Malar Won, Edison Award for Best Character Artist Female
2016 Kuttrame Thandanai Anu Won, Vikatan Award for Best Supporting Actress
Won, Norway Tamil Film Festival Awards for Best Supporting Actress
2018 Katheyondu Shuruvagide Tanya Kannada film
2019 Vellai Pookal Ramya
2019 Ayogya Santhiya

As Performance Coach

Year Title Director
2021 Navarasa Bharat Bala
2022 Vikram Lokesh Kanagaraj
TBD VJS46 Ponram
TBD Gandhi Talks Kishor Pandurang Belekar
TBD Jawan Atlee

Awards & Nominations

Films

Year Award Category Title
2016 Behindwoods Awards Best Actress Critics Choice Iraivi
2016 Edison Awards Best Supporting Actress Iraivi
2016 Behindwoods Awards Best Actress Critics Choice Kuttrame Thandanai
2016 Vikatan Awards Best Supporting Actress Kuttrame Thandanai
2016 Norway Indian Film Festival Best Supporting Actress Kuttrame Thandanai

References

  1. ^ "The legacy of Indian rowing at the historic Madras Boat Club". 19 October 2020.
  2. ^ "Maharashtra lift overall title". 15 November 2009.
  3. ^ "Colombo Rowing Club wins regatta with ease".
  4. ^ "I'd be a hypocrite if I say I will not do commercial films: Pooja - Times of India". The Times of India.
  5. ^ "Theatre Came Accidentally to Me: Pooja Devariya". 16 July 2016.
  6. ^ "'Aandavan Kattalai' actress wins Hollywood award - Telugu News". 29 September 2016.
  7. ^ "Iraivi girl goes to Hollywood". 16 September 2016.
  8. ^ "Curtain Calls: Pooja Devariya | Verve Magazine". 20 April 2016.
  9. ^ "Shattering stereotypes: 15 women characters in Tamil films we love". 10 April 2022.
  10. ^ Rangan, Baradwaj (3 June 2016). "Iraivi review: A few good women". The Hindu.
  11. ^ "Review: Kutrame Thandanai is an interesting crime thriller".
  12. ^ "Kuttrame Thandanai review. Kuttrame Thandanai Tamil movie review, story, rating".
  13. ^ "Senna Hegde finds his leading lady in Pooja Devariya - Times of India". The Times of India.
  14. ^ "Ace your acting skills with actress Pooja Devariya - Times of India". The Times of India.
  15. ^ "Meet Pooja Devariya: The Woman Behind the Emotions of Netflix's Navarasa". 7 August 2021.
  16. ^ "'Navarasa' : Decoding the Monochromatic Teaser". August 2021.
  17. ^ "Nine emotions within minutes: How 'Navarasa' teaser was made". 28 July 2021.
  18. ^ "Vijay Sethupathi works with performance trainer for 'Vikram' - Times of India". The Times of India.
  19. ^ "Vijay Sethupathi taking acting lessons from actress surprising video goes viral - Tamil News". 14 April 2021.
  20. ^ "Actress who taught acting to Vijay Sethupathi .... Viral video - the Post Reader". 15 April 2021.
  21. ^ "Vijay Sethupathi on being the busiest lead Tamil actor — even during a pandemic-Entertainment News , Firstpost". 14 September 2021.

External links

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