Ranjini (actress)

Sasha Selvaraj, better known as Ranjini, is a Singapore-born Indian actress known for her roles in Tamil and Malayalam films of the mid-1980s and early 1990s.

Selvaraj made her debut in the 1985 Tamil film Muthal Mariyathai directed by P Bharathiraja.^[1] In 1987, she acted in Lenin Rajendran's Swathi Thirunal, a biopic on the Travancore ruler of the same name. Her second Malayalam film Chithram (1988), written and directed by Priyadarshan, went on to become a huge box office success.

Mohanlal-Ranjini was considered a golden duo in Malaylam cinema as all their films were commercial successes.^[2] Koothara, directed by Srinath Rajendran, will mark her comeback to acting after a hiatus of two decades.

Career

Ranjini was born in Singapore as Sasha Selvaraj to Selvaraj and Lilly Selvaraj, originally from Tirunelveli.^[3] She was introduced to films by famous director P Bharathiraja, a friend of her father. Bharathiraja gave her the screen name of "Ranjini" for his 1985 film Muthal Mariyathai. Ranjini whose family was in Singapore then had flown down to Chennai taking a break from studies with the hope that the shooting would get over within two weeks.^[4]

Her first Malayalam film was Swathi Thirunal in 1987, directed by Lenin Rajendran. The film was a critical success. She went on to act Malayalam films like Chithram, Mukunthetta Sumitra Vilikkunnu (1988) and Kottayam Kunjachan (1990).

Ranjini quit acting in films at the peak of her career to get married to her first husband, an Eelam tamil man and moved to London, where she continued her studies.^[5] Her last film was Customs Diary (1993), directed by TS Suresh Babu. In London, she also did a degree in credit management and later acquired a law degree. She also worked for BBC for a short time.^[6] She is a graduate lawyer and is currently working as a joint director in an overseas education institution in Kochi, Kerala. She is presently married to her second husband, Malayali businessman Pierre Kombara since 2006.^[7]

Ranjini was in the committee of “Nirbhaya-Kochi”, an initiative of district administration under Ernakulam District Collector, MG Rajamanickam (The Welfare for Women & Children Safety). She was also the committee member of “Stree”, a project for Women and Health under Maradu muncipality in 2016.

Filmography

Miss India/Kerala 2010 (Miss World-Femina) as  Judge
Miss South India  2012 (Miss Asia-Manappuram) as Judge

Notes

External links

• Ranjini on IMDb