Genelia D'Souza

Genelia D'Souza is a popular and controversial Indian actress. Raised Catholic in Mumbai in a wealthy family, D'Souza got into modeling while still a teenager after a modeling scout saw her at a wedding. She subsequently landed some commercial work and offers to appear in movies also came her way. Surprisingly, she didn't want to start a movie career and initially turned down a role to appear in Vijay K. Bhaskar's "Tujhe Meri Kasam." She later accepted it, playing the character Anju, a woman caught between her affections for her childhood friend, Rishi, and her love for a young man, Akash, who she meets at university and intends to marry. The film was not a hit and her career stalled before it even began. Her next film, "Boys," was a hit, but it also generated some controversy because of the provocative subject matter involving aggressive sexual suggestiveness. Her star continued to rise slowly throughout the years, and in 2008 she finally got a major starring role in the romantic comedy "Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na," starring opposite actor Imran Khan. Vibrant, stylish, and fresh, the movie was a major success. Known and loved for her effervescent personality on screen, she toned it down for the thriller "Force," though audiences and critics weren't so enamored with her change. Controversy erupted around the film as well when a wedding sequence in the film involving D'Souza and co-star John Abraham was deemed too real--causing problems when D'Souza intended to really get married.