Laila (actress)

Laila
Born	(1980-10-24) 24 October 1980 Goa , India
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1996–2006 2019-present
Spouse(s)	Mehdi (m. 2006)
Children	2
Website	www.laila.net

Laila (born 24 October 1980) is an Indian actress. She has acted predominantly in Tamil films, as well as few Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi language films.

Career

She made her debut in the Telugu film Egire Paavurama (1996), directed by S. V. Krishna Reddy. Laila began to receive offers from prominent directors to feature in Tamil films and turned down films such as Dharma Chakkaram and Kadhal Palli by K. S. Ravikumar and Pavithran respectively. She subsequently signed on to appear in the lead role in VIP after Pooja Kumar had walked out of the project. However, Laila was left unimpressed when the producer asked her to consider changing her stage name to Pooja, as the invitations for the film had already been printed, and furthermore, she revealed that she was unaware of Rambha also being a heroine in the film. Laila subsequently dropped out of the project, wanting to make her Tamil debut in a film where she played the sole heroine.

Laila then worked with Ajith in Dheena and Parthen Rasithen with Prashanth.

Then came Dhill and Pithamagan with Vikram. In between, Laila took a break and went back to Mumbai. However, she returned to Kollywood with a big bang. Her role in the movie Ullam Ketkumae won her accolades from the masses. She was one of the successful Tamil actresses for a brief time.

Laila has made a comeback to the Tamil entertainment industry. She first appeared in a ready-made flavored milk commercial (Aachi Badam Milk) post her sabbatical in 2018. She will be appearing as the judge for the dance show DJD Juniors on Zee Tamil alongside actresses Sudha Chandran and Sneha. She made her post-sabbatical film comeback with Sardar (2022).

Personal life

She married Mehdi, an Irani businessman, on 6 January 2006. She dated him for eight years before marriage. According to Laila, they were engaged for four years before marriage. The couple has two sons, aged 9 and 12. She is Goan and she is a Roman Catholic.

Filmography

Films

Year	Film	Role	Language	Notes	Ref.
1996	Dushman Duniya Ka	Lata	Hindi	Debut film
1997	Egire Paavurama	Jyoti	Telugu
	Itha Oru Snehagatha	Hema	Malayalam
1998	Khaidi Garu	Rajyam	Telugu
	Pellichesukundam	Laila
	Pavitra Prema	Dr. Shakunthala Devi
	Love Story 1999	Meena
	Subhalekhalu	Manasa
1999	Kallazhagar	Aandaal	Tamil
	Rojavanam	Roja
	Naa Hrudayamlo Nidurinche Cheli	Mini	Telugu
	Mudhalvan	Kalakkal Shuba	Tamil
2000	Nuvve Kavali	Herself	Telugu	Special appearance
	Parthen Rasithen	Sarika	Tamil
	Devara Maga	Sowmya	Kannada
2001	Dheena	Chithra	Tamil
	Dhill	Aasha
	Alli Thandha Vaanam	Divya
	Nandha	Kalyani		Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Tamil
2002	Kamarasu	Vasanthi
	Unnai Ninaithu	Nirmala
	Mounam Pesiyadhe	Gautham's lover		Cameo appearance
2003	Three Roses	Nandhu
	Pithamagan	Manju		Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Tamil Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actress ITFA Best Actress Award
	War and Love	Serina	Malayalam
	Swapnakoodu			Guest appearance
2004	Gambeeram	Vijayalakshmi	Tamil
	Jaisurya	Baby
	Rama Krishna	Lakshmi Vishwanath	Kannada
	Mr & Mrs Sailaja Krishnamurthy	Sailaja	Telugu
2005	Ullam Ketkumae	Pooja	Tamil
	Kanda Naal Mudhal	Ramya
	Insan	Indu	Hindi
2006	Paramasivan	Malar	Tamil
	Thandege Thakka Maga	Pancharangi	Kannada
	Thirupathi	Stage Drama artist	Tamil	Special appearance
	Mahha Samudram	Devi	Malayalam
2022	Sardar	Sameera Thomas	Tamil
2023	Sabdham	TBA	Tamil	Pre-production

Television

Year	Program	Role	Language	Channel	Ref.
2019	Dance Jodi Dance Juniors	Judge	Tamil	Zee Tamil
2020	Gokulathil Seethai	Herself TV Serial (Special Appearance)	Tamil

Web series

Year	Program	Role	Language	Channel
2022	Vadhandhi: The Fable of Velonie	Ruby	Tamil	Amazon original series

External links

• Laila at the Internet Movie Database
• Official Website