Paruthiveeran and the futureAfter three years in search of a film that would get her noticed, Priyamani managed to prove her acting credentials and commercial appeal with the 2007 film Paruthiveeran, directed by the Tamil director Ameer Sultan, in which she was paired with debutant Karthi Sivakumar. A rural subject which told the story of a notorious young villager in Madurai, the film won tremendous critical acclaim and also became a surprise box-office blockbuster. Priyamani's performance was unanimously praised and she went on to win the National Film Award, followed by a South Filmfare Award, a Tamil Nadu State Film Award and an award at the Osian's Cinefan Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema. She had another blockbuster in Telugu, opposite Jr. NTR in the 2007 film Yamadonga and opposite Vishal in the Tamil film Malaikottai.
She again received critical acclaim in 2008 for her role in the Malayalam film Thirakkatha, in which she played a role based on the turbulent real-life story of late film actress Srividya.[3] She won another Filmfare Award for her performance in the film.[4]
In 2009 she had two Tamil releases, the commercial entertainer Arumugam and the Tamil remake of the Malayalam blockbuster Classmates, titled Ninaithale Inikkum, in which she was paired for the third time with Prithviraj. The former was a commercial failure, while the latter was considered a moderate success. Her Kannada debut opposite actor Puneet Rajkumar in Raam was also a commercial success. All three of her Telugu releases that year, however, did not do well at the box office.
[edit] Upcoming projects
Her biggest project in the pipeline happened when she was hired by the ace Indian director Mani Ratnam for his bilingual film, titled Raavanan and Raavan in Tamil and Hindi respectively.[5] Soon after, she was roped in by Bollywood director-producer Ram Gopal Varma (RGV) for his big-budget trilingual film Rakht Charitra starring Vivek Oberoi and Surya Sivakumar. RGV decided to cast her in the film after seeing her National Award-winning performance in Paruthiveeran.[6]
She was chosen along with her friend, actress Sneha, to promote the Chennai Marathon.
