Priya Anand is an Indian film actress and model who appears in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi and Kannada films. After pursuing higher studies in the US, she began a career in modelling in 2008 before making her acting début in the Tamil film Vaamanan (2009) and then her Telugu début in Leader a year later. She made her Bollywood début in 2012 with a supporting role in English Vinglish and sub...Priya Anand is an Indian film actress and model who appears in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi and Kannada films. After pursuing higher studies in the US, she began a career in modelling in 2008 before making her acting début in the Tamil film Vaamanan (2009) and then her Telugu début in Leader a year later. She made her Bollywood début in 2012 with a supporting role in English Vinglish and subsequently appeared in the films Fukrey (2013) as Priya and Rangrezz (2013).
Priya was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu as the only child to a Tamil mother Radha and a half-Telugu, half-Marathi father Bharadwaj Anand. Because of her mixed regional background, she was brought up in both her parents' hometowns, Chennai and Hyderabad, Telangana, becoming fluent in Tamil and Telugu. Besides her mother tongues, Priya is proficient in English, Bengali, Hindi, Marathi and Spanish as well.
Priya became fascinated with films, developing an interest in cinema, since childhood, and noted that she has been dreaming of getting into the film industry and working on technical aspects of film making, but confesses she never thought of becoming an actor. She moved to the US, where she pursued her higher studies. Keeping her later career in mind, she studied Communications and Journalism at SUNY Albany. After completing her education, she returned to India in 2008 and since, stays with her grandparents in Chennai. However, she then ventured into modelling, appearing in various television advertisements like Nutrine Maha Lacto, Prince Jewellery and Cadbury Dairy Milk.
Priya was initially supposed to make her acting début in the Tamil film Pugaippadam, which she signed up first, but since its release was delayed until 2010, her first release became the action-thriller Vaamanan, directed by newcomer Ahmed. She was signed for the project in late 2008 to portray Divya, a simple girl next-door, whom the male lead character, played by Jai, would fall in love with. The film created some anticipation before its release, mainly due to its hit music by Yuvan Shankar Raja, which enabled a big opening, with the song "Aedho Saigirai", which was picturised on her, being considered as her "claim-to-fame" that made her popular among Tamil audience, and being dubbed as a "Priya song". However the film got a lukewarm reception and fared only averagely at the Chennai box office.
