Melissa Raju Thomas

Last updated

Melissa Raju Thomas
Education National University of Singapore
Occupations
  • Actress
  • screenwriter
  • model
Years active2019–present
Known for Moothon
Height5 ft 7 in (170 cm)

Melissa Raju Thomas is an Indian actress, screenwriter and model. She made her feature film debut in Geetu Mohandas' bilingual film Moothon (2019).

Contents

Early life and education

At 13 years old, Melissa was scouted by a talent hunt reality contest in Kerala. At the time, she was only in 8th standard and was cast as a VJ for various shows on the leading Malayalam TV channel, Asianet. She soon became a popular VJ of the Malayalam show, "Valkannadi". She eventually stop VJ-ing to focus on her studies. [1] [2]

Melissa ranked first in her school and state with a final percentage of 97.33% in the CBSE Class X Board Exams. She then secured the SIA Youth scholarship awarded by the Ministry of Education, Singapore to study towards her GCE A Levels at Meridian Junior College. Believing that it would be a good learning and growth experience for her, Melissa took up the opportunity and moved to Singapore at the age of 16.

In 2012, Melissa was crowned the winner of the Navy Queen 2012 beauty pageant. [3] After winning the pageant, she went back to Singapore to complete her undergraduate studies at the National University of Singapore. An accomplished scholar, she was part of the Dean's Honour Roll in Academic Year 2011-12 as well as Academic Year 2012-13. [4]

Career

From 2016 to 2018, Melissa starred in various print and television advertisements including Television Commercials for major brands like "Mercedes Benz", "Kalyan Jewellers" and "Malabar Gold and Diamonds".

In January 2019, Melissa wrote and starred in the well-received short film Faded. [5]

In 2019, she made her feature film debut in Geetu Mohandas' bilingual film Moothon (2019), [6] which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival 2019 [7] internationally and at the Mumbai Film Festival 2019 in India. [8] She played the challenging role of the character Amina, a village girl from Lakshadweep who reaches Mumbai and undergoes transformation. [9]

In 2020, she was cast for an interesting special appearance role in Bejoy Nambiar’s film Taish. She has also mentioned that she is currently writing and working on new scripts.

Filmography

Films

YearTitleRoleNotes
2019 Moothon Amina [10]

Web series

YearTitleRolePlatformNotes
2020TaishSimmi ZEE5 [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mamta Mohandas</span> Indian actress (born 1984)

Mamta Mohandas is an Indian actress, film producer and a playback singer who predominantly works in Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu films. She has won several accolades including two Filmfare Awards South for Best Female Playback Singer in Telugu in 2006 and for Best Actress in Malayalam in 2010 and also won Kerala State Film Award for Second Best Actress in 2010. She has launched her own film production company under the banner Mamta Mohandas Productions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geetu Mohandas</span> Indian actress, director (born 1981)

Gayatri Das known professionally as Geetu Mohandas is an Indian former actress and director known for her works in Malayalam cinema. In 2013, she directed the socio political film Liar's Dice which has received two National Film Awards, was premiered at Sundance Film Festival, and was chosen by the Government of India as India's entry for the U.S. 87th Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, but was not shortlisted or nominated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sakshi Shivanand</span> Indian actress

Sakshi Shivanand is an Indian actress, who has appeared in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi films. Her most notable work is Aapko Pehle Bhi Kahin Dekha Hai which was directed by Anubhav Sinha and co-starred Priyanshu Chatterjee, Om Puri and Farida Jalal. She has also lent her voice to Cinderella in The Story of Cinderella, an animation television series telecast in India on Just Kids! on Sahara TV.

Kadavu is a 1991 Indian Malayalam film scripted, directed and produced by M. T. Vasudevan Nair based on S. K. Pottekkatt's story Kadathuthoni. The film won numerous awards at state, national and international levels, including awards at the Singapore International Film Festival and Tokyo International Film Festival. Film critic Kozhikodan included the film on his list of the 10 best Malayalam movies of all time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lena (actress)</span> Indian actress, author, scriptwriter (born 1981)

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.

Rajeev Ravi is an Indian cinematographer, director, and producer from Kochi, Kerala. He's best known for his work in Hindi and Malayalam films. After graduating from Film and Television Institute of India, Pune in 1997, he started his career by assisting in the Malayalam film, Pranayavarnangal (1998) shot by Santosh Thundiyil. He debuted as a cinematographer with the film Chandni Bar (2001), when he was launched by producer R. Mohan when the original cinematographer Venu had date clashes. The film was directed by Madhur Bhandarkar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nivin Pauly</span> Indian actor, producer (born 1984)

Nivin Pauly is an Indian actor and producer who works predominantly in Malayalam films. He is the recipient of two Kerala State Film Awards, three Filmfare Awards South, two Kerala Film Critics Association Awards, and six SIIMA Awards. He auditioned for and was cast in one of the main roles in Vineeth Sreenivasan's directorial debut, Malarvaadi Arts Club, in 2009 and got his breakthrough in the romantic film Thattathin Marayathu (2012).

Thakarachenda is a 2007 Indian Malayalam-language film directed by debutant Avira Rebecca with Sreenivasan and Geetu Mohandas in the lead. The film is based on a real-life incident. The film was released on 9 August 2007, along with Shaji N. Karun's docu-fiction AKG.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bejoy Nambiar</span> Indian film director

Bejoy Nambiar is an Indian film director, and screenwriter known for his work in Bollywood. He is mostly known for his critically acclaimed short films, Rahu and Reflections, starring Mohanlal. He was the winner of Sony PIX Gateway to Hollywood, as the best director judged by Ashok Amritraj, Rajat Kapoor and Anurag Basu. He marked his feature film debut with the thriller Shaitan (2011). His second feature film was a anthology-drama film called David. His latest Bollywood film was Taish (2020) which was also released as a Series on ZEE5. He also directed Wazir (2016), starring Amitabh Bachchan and Farhan Akhtar. He has also directed a short video 'Sachinocalypse' for All India Bakchod.

New generation films is a Malayalam film movement developed in the early 2010s, characterized by fresh and unusual themes and new narrative techniques. Films of the new wave differ from conventional themes of the past two decades and introduced several new trends and techniques to the Malayalam film industry. While the new generation formats and styles are deeply influenced by global trends, their thematics are firmly rooted in Malayalee life and mindscapes.

<i>Liars Dice</i> (film) 2013 Indian film

Liar's Dice is a 2013 Indian Hindi-language road movie written and directed by Geetu Mohandas and starring Geetanjali Thapa and Nawazuddin Siddiqui. The film tells the story of a young mother from a remote village who, going in search of her missing husband, goes missing herself. The film examines the human cost of migration to cities and the exploitation of migrant workers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harshvardhan Rane</span> Indian actor (born 1983)

Harshavardhan Rane is an Indian actor, who primarily works in Telugu and Hindi films. Rane made his screen debut with the Telugu film Thakita Thakita (2010), and made his Hindi film debut with Sanam Teri Kasam (2016), for which he received the Stardust Award for Superstar of Tomorrow – Male nomination.

<i>Solo</i> (2017 film) 2017 Indian film

Solo is a 2017 Indian experimental anthology film co-written, co-produced and directed by Bejoy Nambiar with Dulquer Salmaan in a quadruple role as Shekhar, Trilok, Siva and Rudra. Shot simultaneously in Malayalam and Tamil, production began during November 2016. Solo tells the story of four people, each story revolving around four elements: Earth, Fire, Wind and Water, each with the facets of Lord Shiva. The film was released on 5 October 2017 in both Tamil and Malayalam worldwide and received positive reviews from critics and audiences. The film was dubbed in Telugu as Athade, which released on 22 June 2018. It's also dubbed into Hindi as Tatva.

<i>Moothon</i> 2019 Indian film

Moothon, also known internationally as The Elder One, is a 2019 Indian Malayalam-language action thriller film written and directed by Geetu Mohandas, and jointly produced by S. Vinod Kumar, Anurag Kashyap, Ajay G. Rai and Alan McAlex. Featuring a bilingual narrative in the Jeseri dialect of Malayalam and Arabic, the film stars Nivin Pauly, Shashank Arora, Sobhita Dhulipala, Melissa Raju Thomas, Sanjana Dipu and Roshan Mathew. Hindi-language dialogues were written by Anurag Kashyap. The film premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival and received a positive critical response. It was included in The Hindu's top 25 Malayalam films of the decade and is widely regarded as one of the defining movies of the New Wave Movement.

Arthi Venkatesh is an Indian model and socialite from Chennai. After appearing in commercials and portfolios in the late 2000s, she made her acting debut through Bejoy Nambiar's bilingual film Solo (2017).

Roshan Mathew is an Indian actor who works predominantly in Malayalam, Hindi & Tamil films. He began his career with numerous theatre productions based in Chennai and Mumbai. These include The Glass Menagerie directed by Rajit Kapoor and 07/07/07 directed by Faezeh Jalali.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shivajith</span> Indian actor from Kerala

Shivajith is an Indian actor from Kerala, who made his debut in the film Veeram in 2016, directed by Jayaraj.

<i>Taish</i> Indian revenge drama film

Taish is a 2020 Indian Hindi-language neo-noir action thriller drama film directed by Bejoy Nambiar. The film stars Pulkit Samrat, Jim Sarbh, Harshvardhan Rane, Kriti Kharbanda and Sanjeeda Shaikh. It is produced by Deepak Mukut, Bejoy Nambiar, and Nishant Pitti. The film was released on ZEE5 on 29 October 2020 as a feature film and six episodic series, simultaneously.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santhosh Damodharan</span> Indian film producer

Santhosh Damodharan is an Indian film producer, distributor and actor who predominantly works in the Malayalam film industry. He owns the production house Damor Cinema. He is best known for producing Pakalppooram (2002), Chandrolsavam (2005), and Kurukshetra (2008). Damodharan made his acting debut as the lead antagonist in Krishnankutty Pani Thudangi (2021).

<i>Navarasam</i> (album) 2015 studio album by Thaikkudam Bridge

Navarasam is the debut studio album produced by the band Thaikkudam Bridge. The album features nine songs, as per its title and explored various themes such as political satire, social inequality and historic stories from the Mughal era. It is the first multi-lingual studio album to be produced where the songs from the album are in Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi languages.

References

  1. ↑ "Home".
  2. ↑ Anand, Shilpa Nair (15 November 2019). "When Melissa became Amina in 'Moothon'". The Hindu.
  3. ↑ "Navy Ball at Kochi | Indian Navy".
  4. ↑ "NUS Dean's List".
  5. ↑ "Faded Review: A Poignant short film exploring modern love". 22 January 2019.
  6. ↑ "Melissa Raju Thomas to debut with Nivin Pauly in Moothon | Malayalam Movie News - Times of India". The Times of India . Archived from the original on 13 September 2019. Retrieved 11 September 2019.
  7. ↑ Nagarajan, Saraswathy (14 August 2019). "Geetu Mohandas' 'Moothon' will premiere at Toronto International Film Festival - The Hindu". The Hindu .
  8. ↑ "Geetu Mohandas' action thriller 'Moothon' to open MAMI Mumbai film festival 2019 - Times of India". The Times of India . 13 August 2019.
  9. ↑ Anand, Shilpa Nair (15 November 2019). "When Melissa became Amina in 'Moothon'". The Hindu.
  10. ↑ Anand, Shilpa Nair (15 November 2019). "Melissa Raju Thomas in her debut feature film-Moothoon". The Hindu .
  11. ↑ "Melissa Raju Thomas plays an important part in Bejoy nambiar's Taish". 7 November 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.