Pooja Kumar Biography

Pooja Kumar is an American actress well known for her work in Tamil, Hindi & Telugu films. After winning the title of Miss India USA, Pooja Kumar started her global career as an American actress, producer, and model. The most famous actor in India Amitabh Bachchan chose her as one of the bright new stars where he looked at over 60,000 contestants fighting for that recognition. He introduced her to Priyadarshan and they gave her the opportunity to host the International Miss World Competition which was broadcast live in over 50 countries.

She has starred in Hollywood feature films such as, Man on a Ledge, Brawl in Cell Block 99, Bollywood Hero, (starring opposite SNL star Chris Kattan), Flavors , Hiding Divya, Park Sharks, Bollywood Beats, Night of Henna, Anything for You, Drawing with Chalk, Knots Urbane. Her international projects include starring opposite actor Kamal Haasan in the films Vishwaroopam, Vishwaroopam 2, and Uttama Villain, The movies were shot simultaneously in both Hindi and Tamil. She will be starring in her first Telugu foreign language film called PSV Garuda Vega starring opposite Rajasekhar.

She was a VJ for the show called BPL Oye for India's leading music Channel V, an Indian movie show called Bajaj Ki Lehren with Jaaved Jaffrey, a game show based in Milan, Germany called Jaago aur Jeeto for Zee TV, all in a span of 2 years!

Early life

Pooja was born into a Mathur family in St. Louis, Missouri. Her parents are immigrants from India; her father is from Dehradun and her mother is from Lucknow. She attended Washington University where she graduated with degrees in political science and finance. Pooja is also trained in the Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi, and Kathak forms of Indian classical dance. She was crowned Miss India USA in 1995.

Career

Pooja Kumar first signed on to appear in director K. R.'s Tamil film Kadhal Rojave in 1997 alongside George Vishnu, but the film's production delays meant that it only released in 2000 and her stint as an actress in the Tamil film industry went unnoticed. She was earlier signed and then left out of the 1997 film V. I. P, while she had also signed to appear alongside Karthik in Chithra Lakshmanan's Chinna Raja, but was eventually dropped from the film.

Pooja produced a short film, "1001 Auditions", that has been selected in eight film festivals, including being nominated for "Best Short" at the Stuttgart Film Festival in Germany. She has also produced a short film called "Shoot My Life". Pooja has also been seen in national TV commercials for Bombay Dreams, Verizon, Dodge, Pearle Vision, New York Lottery, Tata True Roots, AOL Time Warner, and Outback Steakhouse.

In 2003, she received the Screen Actors Guild Emerging Actress Award for Flavors. In 2008, she hosted a late-night live quiz show on Zee TV in India, known as Jaago Aur Jeeto. She appeared in the musical comedy miniseries Bollywood Hero on the IFC in 2008. She starred opposite Saturday Night Live comedian Chris Kattan in the three part series. In the late 2000s, she appeared in the Pakistani drama serial Ishq Junoon Deewangi on Hum TV. After a long gap she reappeared in Kollywood industry from the film Viswaroopam paired with Kamal Hassan.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Language	Notes
2000	Kadhal Rojavae	Pooja	Tamil
2003	Magic Magic 3D	Deepti	Tamil Malayalam
2004	Flavors	Rachana	English
2005	Night of Henna	Hava	English
2006	Hiding Divya	Palini Shah	English
2009	Bollywood Beats	Laxmi	English
	Knots Urbane	Rachna	English
	Park Sharks	Pri	English
2010	Anything For You	Uma Krishnan	English
	Anjaana Anjaani	Peshto	Hindi
	Drawing With Chalk	Jasmine	English
2012	Man on a Ledge	Nina	English
2013	Vishwaroopam	Dr. Nirupama Viswanath/Nirupama wisam	Tamil
	Vishwaroop		Hindi
2015	Uthama Villain	Karpagavalli	Tamil
2016	Meen Kuzhambum Mann Paanaiyum	Mala	Tamil
2017	Sivaranjiniyum Innum Sila Pengalum		Tamil	Delayed
	PSV Garuda Vega	Swathi	Telugu
	Brawl In Cell Block 99	Denise Pawther	English
2018	Vishwaroopam II	Dr. Nirupama Wisam	Tamil	Post-production
	Vishwaroop II		Hindi	Post-production