Vishakha Singh

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Vishakha Singh
Vishakha Singh at the success bash of Fukrey Returns (10) (cropped).jpg
Singh in 2017
Born (1986-05-05) 5 May 1986 (age 35)
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates[1]
NationalityIndian
EducationBusiness Studies, Communications, Delhi University
OccupationActress, Producer, Entrepreneur
Height1.57 m (5 ft 2 in)

Vishakha Singh (born 5 May 1986) is an Indian film actress, producer and entrepreneur. She gained popularity as Neetu Singh, Zafar's girlfriend in Fukrey Series.

She has appeared in many South Indian language films, before starring in Bollywood projects with director Ashutosh Gowariker's 2010 period piece Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey, alongside Abhishek Bachchan and Deepika Padukone. She was nominated for the Best Breakthrough Performance of the Year in 2010, for the same role by StarDust Awards.[2]

She also works as a part-time venture capitalist in her father's company based out of London and Dubai. Her father's name is Mr. Jitendra Singh. She is a frequent figure on the Red Carpet at the Cannes Film Festival and 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) in May 2015.[3] and was also a guest and judge at the Molise Cinema Film Festival in Italy.[4] She is also one of the committee members of Srishti Madurai.[5]

Her production house Lokaa Entertainment is a Mumbai based, content & creativity driven motion pictures production and distribution company founded in 2016. Lokaa Entertainment co-produced the 2016 National award-winning film, Onaatah, directed by Pradip Kurbah.[6] In 2020, it produced the children's musical film, Atkan Chatkan that was Presented by musical maestro A.R. Rehman.[7] The film was directed by Shiv Hare and has renowned percussionist Sivamani as Music Director[8] It also, contains a rare musical cameo by Amitabh Bachchan.[9] It was recognised in 2020, as the Best International Feature at The South London Film Festival 2020[citation needed] and in 2021, it won awards for Best Children's Film, Best Music and Best Actor at the Jaipur International Film Festival[10] Prior to founding Lokaa Entertainment Vishakha Co-Produced the film, Haraamkhor in 2017 with Anurag Kashyap[11] and in 2012 the film, Peddlers with Guneet Monga.[12]

Vishakha Singh is also an entrepreneur.[13] As principal co-founder of Iconic Bot (Vicit Infot Tech Pvt. Ltd.), India's first multi-lingual AI powered celebrity fan management tool, she is spearheading the initiative to make artificial intelligence a part of the promotional mix of the Indian film industry. Vishakha was a winner of the Women Entrepreneur Quest 2017 (WEQ) - an annual contest sponsored by Anitab.org India and the Government of India’s Department of Science and Technology (DST), WEQ highlights and rewards exceptional technology startups founded by women. The Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF) also plays an integral role in supporting and organizing WEQ 2017. Vishakha was also selected for Zone Startups India's empower 2017 initiative which selected 15 tech startups across themes such as IoT, Artificial Intelligence, and Deep Learning for an accelerator programme. In an article titled, "Here’s a closer look at the 15 female tech entrepreneurs who made it to the 2nd edition of empoWer Zone Startups", on www.yourstory.com the author mentions empoWer as the first tech accelerator for women entrepreneurs in India. Vishakha is also part of the Facebook SheLeadsTech initiative to promote women entrepreneurs. In 2015, Vishakha launched Thappad.com a social media app aimed at gauging trends in society.

Career[]

She did her schooling from Abu Dhabi Indian School (ADIS) and Delhi Public School.[14] She completed her graduation in business studies from Delhi University.[15] She said that she wanted to be a teacher and did her post graduation in advertising and public relations.[16] She started modelling in 2007 and appeared in many television and print commercials.[17] She made her feature film debut with a Telugu film Gnaapakam in 2007, which did not do well.[17] After that, she starred in one Tamil, and two Kannada films, Housefull and Antaraatma.

She made her Hindi film debut with Hum Se Jahan, which was never released on DVD and only in theatres, in 2008.[17] 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).[18][19][20][21][22] 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.,[23][24] She has also co-produced Haraamkhor, directed by Shlok Sharma, with Guneet Monga and AKFPL.[25] 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 on to 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.[25]

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.[26] She returns to Telugu films with Rowdy Fellow, opposite Nara Rohit[15] and has stated that she plays "a girl who looks like an angel but is a devil in disguise".[17] She is also acting in The Maya Tape, a horror thriller, directed by Nikhil Alag, in which she plays a journalist.[25] She was signed for an important role in the film, albeit a cameo role, in R. Kannan's Oru Oorla Rendu Raja.[27]

Social activism[]

Vishakha Singh along with Gopi Shankar Madurai launched multiple complaints on behalf of athlete Santhi Soundarajan in National Commission for Scheduled Castes and National Human Rights Commission of India also initiated Justice For Santhi Campaign which was instrumental in fetching her a permanent job at Tamil Nadu Sports Development Authority.[28][29][30][31][32][33]

Filmography[]

Films[]

Year Film Role(s) Language(s) Notes
2007 Gnaapakam Sarangi Telugu Telugu debut
2008 Pidichirukku Manju Mariyadas Tamil Tamil debut
Humsey Hai Jahaan Esha Singh Hindi Hindi debut
2009 House Full Neethu Kannada Kannada debut
2010 Antharathma Mahi Shyam
The Genius of Beauty English Hollywood debut
Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey Pritilata Waddedar Hindi Nominated, Stardust Award for Breakthrough Performance – Female
2013 Kanna Laddu Thinna Aasaiya Sowmiya Tamil
Ankur Arora Murder Case Dr. Riya Hindi
Fukrey Neetu
Bajatey Raho Manpreet
2014 Rowdy Fellow Meghana Telugu
Motorcycle Diaries Swathy Malayalam Malayalam debut [34]
Oru Oorla Rendu Raja Kalpana Tamil Guest appearance
2016 Vaaliba Raja Shalu
Bayam Oru Payanam Abhinya
2017 Fukrey Returns Neetu Singh Hindi [35]
2021 The Maya Tape dagger TBA Hindi Filming[36]
Thuram dagger TBA Telugu Filming[37]

As producer[]

Year Title Producer Notes
2018 Mehram Co-producer Short film[38]
2020 Atkan Chatkan Producer Released on ZEE5[39]

References[]

  1. ^ "Film pedigree doesn't ensure BO success: Vishaka - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
  2. ^ "Bollywood's Best Actresses, 2010". Rediff.com. 31 December 2010. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  3. ^ "Vishakha on the jury of film festival in Rome". The Times of India.
  4. ^ "At MoliseCinema Vishakha Singh sells Bollywood". molisecenema.it. Retrieved 30 June 2018.
  5. ^ "Committee Members - Srishti Madurai". srishtimadurai.org.
  6. ^ "Onaatah - of the Earth". worldfilmpresentation.com. Retrieved 30 June 2018.
  7. ^ "Atkan Chatkan trailer: A R Rahman and Sivamani join forces for inspirational film". The Indian Express. 2 September 2020. Retrieved 10 February 2021.
  8. ^ Atkan Chatkan (2020) - IMDb, retrieved 10 February 2021
  9. ^ "Atkan Chatkan: Amitabh Bachchan sings in musical film presented by AR Rahman". The Statesman. 26 August 2020. Retrieved 10 February 2021.
  10. ^ "12th Jaipur International Film Festival - JIFF - 17 to 21 January 2020 at Inox, GT Central, Jaipur". jiffindia.org. Retrieved 10 February 2021.
  11. ^ Haraamkhor (2015) - IMDb, retrieved 10 February 2021
  12. ^ Peddlers (2012) - IMDb, retrieved 10 February 2021
  13. ^ Tabassum, Ayesha (22 December 2017). "Actress Vishaka Singh turns entrepreneur". indulgeexpress.com. Retrieved 30 June 2018.
  14. ^ "Film pedigree doesn't ensure BO success: Vishaka". The Times of India. 16 October 2013. Archived from the original on 5 November 2013. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  15. ^ Jump up to: a b "Vishakha Singh returns to Telugu movies". The Times of India. 1 January 1970. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  16. ^ "Film pedigree doesn't ensure BO success: Vishaka". The Times of India. 16 October 2013. Archived from the original on 5 November 2013. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  17. ^ Jump up to: a b c d "|". Deccan Chronicle. 26 October 2013. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  18. ^ "Vishakha Singh is a complete natural. She catches one's attention instantly". Taran Adarsh, Oneindia.com. 2 December 2010.
  19. ^ "Vishakha create a smouldering". Nikhat Kazmi, Times of India. 2 December 2010.
  20. ^ "Vishakha Singh does very well as Pritilata Waddedar". Raja Sen Rediff.com. 3 December 2010.
  21. ^ "Vishakha Singh are superb". Sarita Tanwar, Mid Day. 4 December 2010.
  22. ^ "Vishakha Singh has her moments; she has an expressive face and equally expressive eyes". Komal Nahta, koimoi.com. 3 December 2010.
  23. ^ "Vishakha Singh ventured into film production with Peddlers". The Times of India.
  24. ^ sudhish kamath (26 May 2013). "Cup runneth over". The Hindu. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  25. ^ Jump up to: a b c "I am not your typical actress: Vishakha Singh". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 13 October 2013. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  26. ^ "Vishakha is game for a motorcycle ride". The Times of India. 7 October 2013. Archived from the original on 5 November 2013. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  27. ^ Vishakha’s special role in Kannan’s film, The Times of India, 19 April 2014
  28. ^ "Human rights body rejects Santhi Soundarajan's complaint, claims it's too late to accept it". The News Minute. Retrieved 22 May 2017.
  29. ^ "Santhi Set To Fight For Justice Jan 03, 2017, 19:43 IST, Times Now". Timesnow.tv. Retrieved 19 May 2017.
  30. ^ "Ministry of sports served notice on Santhi Soundarajan's complaint". espn.in. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  31. ^ "Santhi's plea". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 21 December 2014.
  32. ^ "Why We Should Join The Campaign Seeking Justice For Runner Shanthi Soundarajan". huffingtonpost.in. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  33. ^ "Santhi set to rebuild life as official athletic coach - The Hindu". The Hindu. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  34. ^ "I have a karmic connection with Tamil films". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  35. ^ Nadadhur, Srivathsan (23 November 2017). "Vishakha Singh's return with a sequel". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  36. ^ Bollywood (8 August 2013). "'Fukrey' girl Vishaka Singh's next to be a supernatural thriller | CanIndia NEWS". Canindia.com. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  37. ^ "Vishakha Singh to act with Manoj Bajpayee". The Times of India. 26 July 2013. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  38. ^ IANS (21 December 2017). "Farida's 'Mehram' to be screened in US, Egypt". Business Standard India. Retrieved 9 April 2021.
  39. ^ "AR Rahman | Atkan Chatkan: AR Rahman all set to present upcoming film 'Atkan Chatkan' on ZEE5". The Economic Times. Retrieved 19 May 2021.

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