Abhirami

Abhirami (born Divya Gopikumar) is an Indian film ac...

Abhirami (born Divya Gopikumar) is an Indian film actress, who has acted in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada films

Early life and education :- Abhirami was born as Divya to Gopikumar and Pushpa. Although she is a Tamilian and mother tongue is Tamil, she was born and grew up in Kerala as her parents were both bank officials settled in Trivandrum, Kerala. She had her primary education from Christ Nagar English High School and Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Trivandrum and predegree from Mar Ivanios College. She graduated in Psychology and Communications from the College of Wooster in Ohio. Her family migrated to United States when she got job there. Her parents are currently yoga instructors at Ohio.
Career :- Abhirami acted for the first time in director Adoor Gopalakrishnan's film Kathapurushan; it was her only film as a child artiste. While in college, Abhirami worked as a TV anchor for the program Top Ten which aired on Asianet Channel, which according to Abhirami was "quite popular" and got her a film offer. Before acting in films, Abhirami also appeared in the 100 episode Malayalam serial Akshaya Pathram by Sreekumaran Thampy. She changed her screen name to Abhirami, the character name of the heroine of the film Guna, being "obsessed with the role and the name".

She acted in a small role in the Malayalam film Pathram in 1999 and in a series Mercara directed by Jude attipetty. Later she acted in films such as Millennium Stars, Njangal Santhushtaraanu, and Sraddha before shifting to Tamil cinema. Her first Tamil film was Vanavil opposite Arjun, which was a "big hit"  and was followed by films including Middle Class Madhavan, and Samudhiram. A notable film in her career was Virumaandi in that she appeared as a Tamil village girl from Madurai opposite Kamal Hassan. Besides Tamil and Malayalam, she has appeared in Telugu and Kannada films and was a notable Tollywood actress. She appeared opposite Upendra in the film Raktha Kanneeru in 2004. and in Sriram opposite Shivrajkumar. In 2004 she retired from the film industry and went to United States for studies.In 2014, she made a comeback through the Malayalam film Apothecary, in which she played the role of a gynaecologist. She has signed up the film Driver on Duty in which she will be seen as a Sub-Inspector named Arundhati Varma.
Other works :- During her sabbatical from acting, Abhirami occasionally worked as a voice actor and television host. She dubbed for Pooja Kumar in both parts of Kamal Haasan'sVishwaroopam  and was the host of Rishimoolam on the Tamil television channel Puthuyugam. Currently she is anchoring a reality show on Mazhavil Manorama titled "Made For Each Other". She also dubbed for Pooja Kumar in Uthama Villain.
Family  :- She got married to Rahul Pavanan, acclaimed writer Pavanan's grandson, on 27 December 2009 in Bangalore after fifteen years long love affair. It was a very private and small function as they both want simple marriage. They didn't invite anyone from film field. They studied in the same school and the friendship lead to love when she was doingTop Ten, a program in Asianet. She worked as the marketing director of an MNC in United States.