Where is Vandanam Girija of Gadha Jam fame ?

Where has Girija the girl in Vandanam by Priyadarshan and Geethanjali by Mani Rathinam vanish? Yes vanish !. Both films are iconic movies. Geethanjali for example led to Geethanjali dresses a craze in campus and the comedy scenes like Girija telling I love you to Mohanlal are all time classic. I remember that Girija was featured in Screen by me on the front page. Priyan told me that Girija is a Britisher and came to cinema by accident as she was down here to learn classical dancing. Girija was born in 1969 in Orsett, Essex her father is a doctor from Karnataka and her mother is a British. Currently she is a writer staying in London, now she is writing for a shipping magazine. In 2014 she won Social Media Journalist of the Year as senior reporter for UHS Maritime Fairplay at Seahorse Journalist Awards, London.

Girija is an expert dancer, since the age of 18 she got trained in classical dance, Bharatanatyam. She completed a doctoral thesis in Integral Yoga Philosophy and Indian Spiritual Psychology from Cardiff University in 2003. Fine but what surprised me was this information L In 2024 she made her comeback after a long gap to the film industry by acting in the Kannada film Ibbani Tabbida Ileyali, Rakshit Shetty produced the film. Girija did the role of Madhumita alongside Vihan Gowda, Ankita Amar and Mayuri Nataraj. The film received good response from the audience and the critics expressed their positive opinion about the film. Times critic wrote ; Manirathnam’s Geethanjali fans will also get to see the beautiful Girija Shettar in a memorable role.

A flashback ; n 1992 she signed for the Bollywood film Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar. She was supposed to act opposite Aamir Khan as a leading actress but she left the project in the middle to complete her prior commitment. So after the first schedule she was replaced by actress Ayesha Julka. In the same film Girija made a special appearance in the song Jawa ho yaron… In the same year she got an opportunity to work in another Telugu film Hrudayanjali under the direction of A. Raghurami Reddy. Though the film was completed in 1992 it got released after a decade in 2002. The film won 3 Nandi Awards but due to delayed release it received negative response and didn't receive proper recognition. Recently, in an interview with a daily, the actress revealed that she never knew that the scene ‘Gadha Jam had got a cult status in Kerala. ...