Roja Ramani

Roja Ramani (also known as Chembaruthi Shobana) (born 16 September 1959) is a South Indian movie actress who predominantly worked in Telugu cinema. She was a child actor and her debut movie was Bhakta Prahlada (1967) for which she received National Film Award for Best Child Artist. She was popular during the 1970 and early 1980s and has acted in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada movies. She worked in 400 films as a dubbing artiste. She is an active member of BlueCross and is involved in several social service activities.

Early life

She was born in Madras, India. Her father was a journalist with Picture Post. She has two siblings.^[1]

Career

She had started her career at the age of 5 in 1966 in the title role of Bhaktha Prahaladha in Telugu language. It is the first full length Eastman color feature film which was produced by AVM Productions. It was a blockbuster hit film.

She acted in more than 70 films as a child artist and at the age of 13 she acted as a lead in the Malayalam movie Chambarathi which went on to be a record breaking hit and was a trendsetter at the time. The same movie was remade with Ramani in Telugu as Kanne Vayasu and in Tamil as Paruva Kaalam which also went on to be huge hits.

She has acted in more than 300 films in different languages like Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi and Oriya. She also lent her voice for over 400 films in Telugu and Tamil for all the leading heroines at the time like Suhasini, Meena, Radhika, Ramya Krishna, Roja, Vijaya Shanthi, Shilpa Shetty, Divya Bharathi, Nagma, and Khushboo.

She also won the AP State Television Award, International Children’s Film Festival Award, FilmFare Award, International Film Festival- Indian Panorama Award, and Zee Kutumbam Award.

Personal life

She married S. Chakrapani, an Oriya actor, in 1981. He is now producer/director and Head of ETV Oriya channel. They have a son, Tarun, who acted as a hero in Nuvve Kavali and a daughter Amulya, who holds a psychology degree.

Awards

National Film Award for Best Child Artist for portraying Prahlada in Bhakta Prahlada - 1967

She has won more than 50 awards and rewards for her performances and voice dubbing. Like AP State Govt. NANDI Awards, Kerala State Govt, FilmFare, Cinema Express, Cine Herald, Malayala Manorama, Cine Goers, Madras Film Fans Associaction etc.

She was felicitated in 75 years of Indian Cinema Celebration and also in 100 years Cinema Celebration.

She has been honored in America, by Telugu Fine Arts Community in New Jersey and by Telugu Association in Tampa, Florida for her lifetime achievement and contribution to film industry.

Filmography

Malayalam: credited as Shobana

References

External links

• Roja Ramani at the Internet Movie Database