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Kasthuri Shankar is an Indian film actress who has appeared in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada language films.
After winning the Miss Madras 1992 beauty pageant, Kasthuri began an acting career through Kasthuri Raja's Aatha Un Koyilile (1991). In the early 2010s, she made a comeback and took on roles as a supporting actress and as a television host.
Career
During her education at Ethiraj College for Women, Kasthuri became interested in modelling and later went on to win the Femina Miss Madras beauty pageant for 1992. She received film offers and subsequently made her acting debut through Kasthuri Raja's Aatha Un Koyilile (1991), where she portrayed a wealthy girl in a village. She continued to work in small budget Tamil films such as the horror drama Rasathi Varum Naal (1991) and Manivannan's Government Mappillai (1992), before working alongside Prabhu on more mainstream films such as Gangai Amaran's Chinnavar (1992) and P. Vasu's Senthamizh Paattu (1992). During the same period, she worked on her first Telugu and Malayalam films as a lead actress. After garnering popularity for her early films, she was cast opposite Rajinikanth in P. Vasu's Uzhaippali (1993), but was later dropped from the project.In the mid-1990s, Kasthuri was the subject of a 30-minute documentary film Kasthuri: A South Indian Film star made by Richard Breyer and N. C. Rajamani. Kasthuri then continued to work as the lead actress in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam films, notably appearing in successful films such as the horror drama Athma (1993), the political satire Amaidhi Padai (1995) and as the title character in Chinna Mani (1995). At the height of her popularity, her Telugu film Merupu (1996) co-starring Anand and Vikram, was dubbed and released in Tamil as Miss Madras, owing to her success in the competition.
Kasthuri was then cast alongside Kamal Haasan in Shankar's action drama Indian (1996), where she portrayed a pivotal supporting role a poor student. She later won critical acclaim for her role as Akkalamma in the Telugu devotional film, Annamayya (1997), where she starred alongside Nagarjuna and Ramya Krishnan. She then appeared opposite Prashanth in Agathiyan's romantic drama Kaadhal Kavithai (1998), and won attention for her performance in a song. As her roles diminished in Tamil and Telugu films, Kasthuri began to take up supporting roles towards the end of her first stint.
In the late 2000s, Kasthuri returned to India owing to her mother's ailing health and decided to make a comeback as an actress. However, several of the films that she signed during the period were dropped or unreleased including Selva's Nootrukku Nooru, Milind Rau's Kadhal 2 Kalyanam and Venkat's Kadhirvel, where she was signed to perform in an item number. Her first release during her second stint was the action drama Malai Malai (2009), and she followed it up with a single song appearance in the comedy Thamizh Padam (2010). Throughout the mid-2010s, she continued to shift base between the US and India, and acted in more films in guest appearances and in single song appearances. She also notably portrayed a key supporting role as an investigative agent in Adhik Ravichandran's Anbanavan Asaradhavan Adangadhavan (2017), appearing alongside Silambarasan. The film garnered fanfare prior to release, but the commercial failure of the film saw a proposed sequel cancelled.
Personal life
Her father Shankar was an engineer from IIT and her mother, Sumathi, was an advocate. She has a daughter who is a leukaemia survivor.
