Roja (actress)

Roja Selvamani (born Sri Latha Reddy; 17 November 1972) is a South Indian actress and politician.^[2] She currently aligns with the YSR Congress party and won as MLA from Nagiri in 2014 general elections.^[3][4]

Early life

Roja was born as Sree Latha in 1972 to Nagaraja Reddy and Lalitha in near Bhakarapeta, Chithoor district, Andhra Pradesh. She was the only girl child with two brothers Kumarasamy and Ramaprasad.^[5] Later, the family moved to Hyderabad. She did her Bachelor Degree in Political Science from sri padmavathi university. Roja learnt Kuchipudi and was performing dance before she entered films.^[6]

Career

Film career

Roja entered the cinema industry with Telugu films. Her first movie was Prema Thapassu with Rajendra Prasad where the complete movie was shot in Tirupati.

She was introduced to the Tamil film industry by director R.K. Selvamani with Chembaruthi along with actor Prashanth. The movie was a hit and paved way for role in another success, Suriyan with Sarath Kumar. Both the films established her in Tamil cinema.^[7] She became popular with songs such as "Veloor Maman" in the film Makkal Aatchi with Mammootty and "Mastana Mastana" in Raasaiyya with Prabhu Deva. Her performance in films with actors such as Rajnikanth in Veera, and Arjun Sarja in Ayudha Poojai were praised. Roja's major career breakthrough was in the film Unnidathil Ennai Koduthen, directed by Vikraman. Her 100th movie was Pottu Amman. Roja later appeared in supporting roles in films like Arasu (2003), Parijatham (2006), Shambo Shiva Shambo (2010), Golimar (2010), Mogudu (2011), Kodipunju (2011), Veera (2011), Kaavalan (2011) and Saguni (2012).

Political career

Roja joined Telugu Desam and was the woman wing president of Telugu Mahila Party.^[8] During the 2009 state elections, she was involved in confrontations and political antics with her rival opposition party leaders, which ultimately led to her defeat for the second consecutive time in the AP state Assembly elections. In August 2009, She quit TDP and joined Congress Party.^[8] She quit Congress party and is now with YSR Congress Party^[9] On 16 May 2014, she won as a MLA from Nagari assembly constituency.

Trivia

Roja and Meena resembled each other when younger, and Meena acted as Roja’s younger sister in several movies. Roja had a penchant for hairdressing and it was evidently seen as whenever she is in the sets, she’s seen hairdressing her co-heroines like Devayani, Kushboo, Ranjitha and Mumtaz to name a few. According to Ramya Krishnan, her friend and co-star, Roja is one of the few artists who can do their make-up themselves. Actress Mumtaz in an interview praised Roja’s willingness and egoless attitude when she did her hair and make-up during a Singapore Film Show in 2003.^[10]

Political Controversies

Despite R.K.Roja being an active speaker among women MLA's, she is also known to her provocative language and misbehaviour during assembly proceedings^[11] on multiple occasions^{[12][13][14][15]} which resulted in her suspension to attend the legislative assembly for one year.^[16][17][18] The decision was taken by majority in the legislative house, on 18th Dec 2015, and by the approval of the head of the house, The Speaker.^[16][17][18] The choice of her language as well as the behaviour with regards to the assembly proceedings and discipline of the house was highly criticised by various TDP politicians.^[19][20][21] Despite all these, Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, Honorable leader of the opposition, backed her move and supported her behaviour.^[11][22] His attitude to support such behaviour was questioned by several political analysts and regarded this as political immaturity.^[23][24] However, there were several concerns on the procedure followed while suspending R.K Roja. Such doubts made the opposition to move no-trust motion against the speaker.^[25][26] An issue was raised by the opposition party on how the media clipping, property of the house, released / published on social media without the speaker's approval and the speaker also noted their concern and setup an inquiry to probe the issue further and submit a report by next meeting.^[27]

Other work

She played the role of anchor in a show name 'Modern Mahalakshmi' before getting replaced by Anasuya.This show is telecasted in MAA TV.

She is the judge for a comedy show named 'Jabardasth'. This show is telecasted in E TV. she hosted one show for Zee Tamizh called lucka kicka.

Personal life

Roja married a tamil director R.K. Selvamani on 10 August 2002. The couple have one daughter and one son.

Filmography

Telugu cinema

Tamil Cinema

(Successful Movies in Bold)

Malayalam Cinema

Kannada cinema

Television

|2015-2016 ||

References

External links

• Roja at the Internet Movie Database