Geeta Poduval (born November 10) is a social entrepreneur, motivational speaker, counsellor and activist for disabled people. She is the Founder-Director of DRZYA, [1] a firm that brings disabled and unique performances, talks and workshops from across the world on one platform. Through DRZYA, she scouts for talent among specially abled, trains them and provides them a platform to perform and earn a livelihood. She is also the Founder-Trustee of Drzyashakti Trust, an NGO for the services of disabled people. In the past, she has been a film and TV actress, anchor and CAG Senior Audit Officer (Comptroller and Auditor General - India's national and state audit authority). The two notable films to her credit are Sukumarji's Kandethal [2] (Malayalam) and Madhu Kaithapram's Vellivelichathil [3] (Malayalam).
Geeta was born in Ahmedabad in a middle class Malayali family. She joined CAG and passed the internal officer's grade examination. During this time she handled many audits including the UN Audit in Western Africa. She worked for the organisation for twenty years until her voluntary retirement in 2014 as Senior Audit Officer. Parallel to her career, she pursued her singing, classical dancing and acting interests. While in the service, she participated in one of the talent shows on Amrita TV, and then took up various anchoring and acting projects. Geeta also wrote short stories and articles for magazines including Femina and Woman's Era and conducted motivational talk sessions and training programs for government organisations, PSUs and Corporate houses. She has also been involved in social activism. [4] In 2017 she founded Drzya, [5] [6] a firm that offers disabled artists opportunity to showcase their talent professionally and participate in inspirational talks and workshops. Later in 2018 she founded Drzyashakti Trust [7] to serve and promote the causes of disabled people. Presently she is involved in capacity building of disabled people, counselling and mentoring them, delivering workshops and inspirational talks.
Geeta has anchored over 500 shows in India and abroad, ranging from award functions, cultural meets, musical nights, corporate events and social meets in Hindi, English, Gujarati and Malayalam languages.
Geeta has acted in films, TV serials, corporate films and advertisements.
Geeta has been a speaker at various forums and events. She was a speaker at TEDxYouth@JGIS. [35] She was invited as the Keynote speaker during the Daughters’ Day celebration of the Bengaluru chapters of PRCI and YCC. [36] She has been conducting training programs and motivational talks for corporate houses and government organisations for many years on a wide range of topics including women leadership, diversity and inclusion, POSH, managing life and life goals among others.
Madhu Eravankara is a film director, film critic, film scholar,film jury, film teacher, and author. He was born in Eravankara in Alappuzha District, Kerala, India.
Shwetha Menon is an Indian actress, model, television anchor and beauty pageant titleholder. She has won Femina Miss India Asia Pacific 1994. She has predominantly acted in Malayalam and Hindi language films, besides appearing in a number of Telugu and Tamil Language Films. She won two Kerala State Film Awards for Best Actress. She participated in Bigg Boss Malayalam Season 1.
Manjari is an Indian playback singer and Hindustani vocalist. Her first stage performance was with Shiva, the Kolkata - based rock band, when she was in class eight.
Tisca Zareen Chopra is an Indian actress, author and film producer who has appeared in over 45 feature films, predominantly in Hindi language.
Anjali Menon is an Indian filmmaker and screenwriter who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema. Anjali has won international, national and state awards for her work and is best known for her feature films Manjadikuru,Kerala Cafe(Happy Journey),Ustad Hotel, Bangalore Days, Koode and Wonder Women. She is counted among the change agents in Indian cinema whose work gets attention from the audience and the critics.
Lena Mohan Kumar, known by stage name Lenaa, is an Indian actress, author, and scriptwriter who appears predominantly in Malayalam cinema. In a career that spans over 25 years, Lenaa has worked in over 175 films in 5 languages, including blockbusters as well as critically acclaimed films in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam.
Thooval Kottaram is a 1996 Indian Malayalam-language romantic drama film directed by Sathyan Anthikad and written by A. K. Lohithadas. It stars Jayaram and Sukanya in the main roles. The music was composed by Johnson. The film won three Filmfare Awards South, was a commercial success, and ran for about 300 days in theatres. Jayaram won his first Kerala State Film Award, a Special Jury Award, for his role as Adv. Mohanachandra Poduval.
Madhu Kaithapram was an Indian film director who worked primarily in the Malayalam film industry based in Kerala. He made his directorial debut with the feature film Ekantham in 2006 that won him the National Film Award for the best debutant director and followed it up with the critically acclaimed Madhya Venal (2009) and the family-drama Orma Mathram (2011). His last venture Velli Velichathil was released on 19 September 2014. He died on 29 December 2014. He was under treatment for diabetes.
Mirchi Music Awards South is the South Indian segment of the annual Mirchi Music Awards, presented by Radio Mirchi to honour both artistic and technical excellence of professionals in the South Indian music industry. The awards are separately given for Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. The awards were first given out in 2010 for the best of 2009 and the ceremony was held at the Nehru Indoor Stadium on 17 July 2010.The print partner was The Times of India. The broadcast partners wre Star's Kannada offering Suvarna TV, Star's Tamil channel Vijay TV, Zee Telugu & ETV, Star's Malayalam channel Asianet plus. The second edition was held in Nehru Indoor Stadium on 10 September 2011.
Shruti Sawant, known by her stage name Ineya, is an Indian actress from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. She predominantly appears in Malayalam and Tamil films. She won the Best Actress Award for her role in the Tamil film Vaagai Sooda Vaa (2011) at the Tamil Nadu State Film Awards.
Geethaanjali is a 2013 Indian Malayalam-language horror film directed by Priyadarshan and written by Abhilash Nair, with dialogue by Dennis Joseph. Though promoted as spin-off of the 1993 film Manichitrathazhu, it was an adaptation of the 2007 Thai film Alone which was loosely based on the novel Elephants Can Remember. Mohanlal reprises his role from Manichitrathazhu and Suresh Gopi appears in a cameo role. It also features Keerthy Suresh, Nishan, Siddique, Madhu, Swapna Menon, Innocent, and K. B. Ganesh Kumar. In the film, psychologist Dr. Sunny Joseph arrives at a mansion to treat Anjali, who is haunted by her deceased twin sister Geetha, and investigates the paranormal activities. It marked the Malayalam and film debut of Keerthy Suresh.
Camel Safari is a 2013 Indian Malayalam-language romance film directed by Jayaraj which narrates a love story set in Rajasthan. The movie features Arun Shankar and Pankaja Menon in the lead roles. Sekhar Menon, Tini Tom, Sabitha Jayaraj, Binu Adimaly, Neha Ramesh, Hashim Hussain, Vishnu Mohan and Anjali Ajayan plays supporting roles; Kamal Gaur, the villain of Johnnie Walker, made a comeback. The filming of Camel Safari begun on 22 November 2012 at the Pushkar Fair in Rajasthan. It was completed in three schedules with the maximum being shot in Rajasthan and the rest in Cochin, Kerala. The song rights of the film were sold to Manorama Music. The film Camel Safari was released on 26 September 2013.
Biju Kuttan is an Indian actor and comedian who appears in Malayalam films. As of June 2021, he has acted in more than 70 Malayalam films.
Anumol is an Indian actress, predominantly acting in Malayalam and Tamil films. She appeared in Malayalam films such as Chayilyam (2014), Ivan Megharoopan (2012), Akam (2011), Vedivazhipadu (2013) and Jamna Pyari (2015).Her performance as Kuruvammal in 2023 Tamil web-series Ayali applauded by Critics and Audience.
Korom Pulleri Vadhayarillathu Unnikrishnan Namboothiri was an Indian actor in Malayalam movies. He mainly handled comedy roles and grandfather roles. His role as Dileep's grand father in the Malayalam movie Kalyanaraman was well noted. P. V. Kunhikrishnan, a judge of the Kerala High Court is his son and the noted lyricist and music director Kaithapram Damodaran Namboothiri is his son-in-law. He died on 20 January 2021 at a private hospital in Kannur.
Surabhi C. M., also known as Surabhi Lakshmi is an Indian film, television, and stage actress who appears in Malayalam films and television. She won the National Film Award for Best Actress in 2016 for portraying the role of a struggling middle-aged mother in the Malayalam film Minnaminungu.
Vellivelichathil is a 2014 Indian Malayalam film directed by Madhu Kaithapram, starring John Brittas and Iniya in the leading roles. This is the first Malayalam film to be shot entirely in Muscat, Oman.
Justin Jose is an Indian Sound Engineer and Sound Mixer. He has worked in Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Ladakhi, Latvian, Arab, Urdu and Malayalam films.
Hima Shankar known as Hima Shankar Sheematty, is an Indian actress who appears in Malayalam films and short films. She has also directed and performed in many theatrical works. She took a part in the reality show Bigg Boss Malayalam.
The second season of the Malayalam-language version of the Indian reality television series Bigg Boss premiered on 5 January 2020. It was produced by Endemol Shine India and broadcast on Asianet. Mohanlal returned as the host. The show follows 22 contestants, who are isolated from the outside world for 105 days in a custom built house.
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