Sanjjanaa

Early years and personal life

Brought up in Bengaluru, Sanjjanaa is of Sindhi origin. When she was doing her PUC, she received her first modelling offer. She continued her studies while working as a part-time model. She appeared in over 60 television advertisements, the most notable being a Fastrack advertisement with John Abraham.

She has a sister Nikki Galrani, who is also an actress.

Debut (2005)

After appearing in a couple of advertisements and in uncredited cameo roles in the films Soggadu and Panduranga Vittala, she got her first starring role in Ganda Hendathi. Her first release, however, became the low-budget Tamil film, Oru Kadhal Seiveer, which met with negative reviews and poor box office returns. S R Ashok Kumar of The Hindu noted that Sanjjanaa, then credited under her birth name, was "beautiful but has to work on her acting". Ganda Hendathi, a Kannada remake of the Hindi film Murder (2004), itself an adaptation of the Hollywood film Unfaithful (2002), was also panned by critics. The film was released in Telugu as Mogudu Pellam O Boy Friend. Sanjjanaa's performance drew mixed reviews, with a reviewer from nowrunning.com claiming that she "utterly fails to deliver" in the emotional sequences, while Sify wrote "Sanjjanaa has made a decent debut and she is extremely daring and does justice to her role". In 2008, she made her Telugu film debut in Puri Jagannadh's Bujjigadu, in which she played a notable role alongside Prabhas and Trisha Krishnan. Although her role was small, the film gained her considerable attention and helped her growing in popularity. In 2010, she was first seen in the Telugu film Police Police, which was followed by a cameo role in Huduga Hudugi. Her final release of that year was Mylari that featured her opposite Shivrajkumar. It was the biggest milestone in her Kannada career as she was subsequently flooded with offers in Kannada cinema. Regarding her performance in the film, the Times of India wrote that she "shines in her lively and mischievous role". She won the Bangalore Times Award for Best Actor in a Negative Role Female in 2012 for I Am Sorry Mathe Banni Preethsona.

In January 2012, she played one of the lead female roles in Casanovva, her maiden Malayalam venture. Reportedly the costliest Malayalam production of all time, co-starring Mohanlal and Shriya Saran, the film saw Sanjjanaa portray a salsa dancer. Director Rosshan Andrrews signed her for the particular role, since she was trained in salsa. Her last release is her second Malayalam film, the Shaji Kailas directed The King & the Commissioner, co-starring Mammooty and Suresh Gopi. Later in 2012 she was seen in films including Narasimha, Ondu Kshanadalli, Sagar, all of which being Kannada projects, and Yamaho Yama.

In 2013 she appeared in Jagan Nirdoshi in Telugu which was made under Padmalaya Films and in Mahanadhi in Kannada, which was her first heroine centric film. She was then seen in Nenem…Chinna Pillana? in which she played a NRI again. She is currently filming for a Telugu comedy film, Saradha, directed by RP Patnaik, while her Kannada films Agarja, opposite Jaggesh, and Rebel which film has Aditya in the lead, and the Telugu film, Once Upon a Time have been finished.

2017–Present

She has shared a space with south indian popular actress Pooja Gandhi in bilingual commercially successful crime drama film Dandupalya 2 in (2017), where she received a critical appraisal from the critics and audience for her natural performance in the film as Chandri.

Awards