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Tamil Actress Stills Biography
Nagra was born in Leicester, England, the daughter of Punjabi Jat Sikh parents who emigrated to the UK from Punjab, India during the late 1960s. Her father, Sukha, was a factory worker who is believed to have separated from her mother, Nashuter, either when Nagra was a child shortly after or before her birth; he died in late December 2008.[citation needed] Nagra is the eldest of four children with two brothers and one sister. They were brought up in a small terraced house in the Belgrave district of Leicester by her mother and stepfather, who worked as a bookkeeper at a cousin's transport company.[citation needed]
At the age of seven, Nagra suffered a burn while preparing a meal on the gas stove when her trousers caught fire. She was taken into the bathroom by an uncle who immersed her in cold water. When the burned fabric was later removed, her skin attached to it was removed as well and left a resulting scar on her right leg. The story was included into the film Bend It Like Beckham; however, the details were changed such that her character was burned while making beans on toast and her sister was the one who removed the trousers.
[edit]Education and early career
Nagra attended the Northfield House Primary School in Leicester. At her comprehensive school, Soar Valley College, she played viola in the youth orchestra and also appeared in her first theatrical productions.[citation needed] A few months after sitting her A-levels and leaving school, Nagra was approached by her former drama instructor, Jez Simons, about becoming part of the Leicester-based theatre company Haithizi Productions, for which he served as the artistic director.[citation needed] She accepted and was cast as a chorus member in the 1994 musical Nimai presented at the Leicester Haymarket. Only a week into rehearsals, she was switched from the chorus to replace the lead actress, who had dropped out.[citation needed] Simons recalls that Nagra, while also a good singer and actress, had a quality that raised her above other actresses which led him to select her as the new lead.[citation needed] Nagra sometimes describes herself as having "fallen into" acting due to this unexpected turn of events.[citation needed]
[edit]The London years
Nagra left Leicester for London, forgoing university to pursue a theatrical career and her childhood ambition of becoming an actress.[citation needed] Nagra's first London theatrical job came in 1994[citation needed] when she was cast as the Princess in the pantomime Sleeping Beauty, at the Theatre Royal Stratford East. Although most critics[who?] seemed rather unimpressed with the show, Nagra's performance is notable in that she was a woman of colour portraying a traditionally white character.[citation needed] After Sleeping Beauty, Nagra worked with small Indian theatre companies such as Tara Arts and Tamasha. These roles eventually led to the radio and television appearances that also defined her career throughout most of the 1990s. She also appeared in "The 6th wonder of the World: the Kali Tutti Story", in 1994.
In 1996, Nagra took a small part in Fair Ladies at a Game of Poem Cards, written by Chikamatsu Monzaemon and performed at Cottesloe, Royal National Theatre. It was there that she met Irish actor Kieran Creggan, with whom she later moved into a flat in Kennington, south London. Their relationship continued for five years.[citation needed]
Although lacking formal theatrical training, Nagra signed with veteran London-based agent Joan Brown,[citation needed] after which she was cast in her first television roles — a bit part on the British medical drama Casualty, and a small role in the television movie King Girl, in which Nagra played an abusive member of a girls' gang. In 1997, Nagra appeared in the three-part drama Turning World, starring Roshan Seth. The following year she appeared on Casualty for the second time. In 1999 she played the part of a convenience store clerk in the television movie Donovan Quick, starring Colin Firth. Also of note are appearances on the British comedy show Goodness Gracious Me. Nagra also starred in radio plays written including, amongst other, plays written by noted author and playwright Tanika Gupta. In 1998, Nagra was part of Dancing Girls of Lahore, a radio play co-written by her future Bend It Like Beckham co-star, Shaheen Khan. In 2001, Nagra provided the voice of a Muslim girl in Arena: The Veil, a docu-drama about women who choose to wear the Muslim head scarf. Her stage performances of this period are perhaps the most noteworthy. Not long after Fair Ladies at a Game of Poem Cards, Nagra was cast in 1997's Oh Sweet Sita, an adaptation of Indian mythology about Rama and his wife Sita.[citation needed] Starring in the title role of Sita, Nagra caught the attention of director Gurinder Chadha.
Nagra's other notable stage roles during this period are many and include appearances in Skeleton (1997), with critical acclaim for her "bright-eyed vivacity"[citation needed] as the village girl; A Tainted Dawn (1997), playing a Hindu boy accidentally left in Pakistan and raised by a Muslim couple; Fourteen Songs, Two Weddings & A Funeral (1998), showing her skills as a romantic comedienne, also to critical acclaim;[citation needed] Krishna's Lila — A Play of the Asian World (1999), as part of a five-person cast in a controversially titled piece;[citation needed] The Square Circle (1999), tackling the demanding role of an illiterate peasant girl who becomes a rape victim;[citation needed] and in River on Fire (2000), as Kiran, in a retelling of Sophocles' Antigone.
[edit]Bend It Like Beckham
Bend It Like Beckham was Nagra's breakthrough film. It was directed by British director Gurinder Chadha and also starred Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Anupam Kher, Shaheen Khan and Keira Knightley, for whom this film was also a career breakthrough. In the film, Nagra plays Jessminder "Jess" Bhamra, a teenage Sikh football player who idolizes football superstar David Beckham and defies her traditional parents to pursue her dreams of playing football.
The small-budget picture was a critical and financial success in the United Kingdom, eventually making the leap around the world and to Canada and the U.S. where it earned over $30 million at the box office.[citation needed] The script, conceived by Chadha with her husband Paul Mayeda Berges and Guljit Bindra, was written with Nagra in mind.[citation needed] While initially indifferent to the game of football, Nagra found the football-centred story to be both funny and touching.[citation needed] She agreed to audition and eventually accepted the role. An intensive ten-week training course of the game Futsal, led by noted coach Simon Clifford, put Nagra through rigorous nine-hour-a-day workouts. Nagra learned to "bend" or curve the ball in flight, as she did in a scene in the film. In a nod to Nagra's actual life, director Chadha wrote and incorporated a scene about Nagra's scar into the
Tamil Actress Stills Biography
Nagra was born in Leicester, England, the daughter of Punjabi Jat Sikh parents who emigrated to the UK from Punjab, India during the late 1960s. Her father, Sukha, was a factory worker who is believed to have separated from her mother, Nashuter, either when Nagra was a child shortly after or before her birth; he died in late December 2008.[citation needed] Nagra is the eldest of four children with two brothers and one sister. They were brought up in a small terraced house in the Belgrave district of Leicester by her mother and stepfather, who worked as a bookkeeper at a cousin's transport company.[citation needed]
At the age of seven, Nagra suffered a burn while preparing a meal on the gas stove when her trousers caught fire. She was taken into the bathroom by an uncle who immersed her in cold water. When the burned fabric was later removed, her skin attached to it was removed as well and left a resulting scar on her right leg. The story was included into the film Bend It Like Beckham; however, the details were changed such that her character was burned while making beans on toast and her sister was the one who removed the trousers.
[edit]Education and early career
Nagra attended the Northfield House Primary School in Leicester. At her comprehensive school, Soar Valley College, she played viola in the youth orchestra and also appeared in her first theatrical productions.[citation needed] A few months after sitting her A-levels and leaving school, Nagra was approached by her former drama instructor, Jez Simons, about becoming part of the Leicester-based theatre company Haithizi Productions, for which he served as the artistic director.[citation needed] She accepted and was cast as a chorus member in the 1994 musical Nimai presented at the Leicester Haymarket. Only a week into rehearsals, she was switched from the chorus to replace the lead actress, who had dropped out.[citation needed] Simons recalls that Nagra, while also a good singer and actress, had a quality that raised her above other actresses which led him to select her as the new lead.[citation needed] Nagra sometimes describes herself as having "fallen into" acting due to this unexpected turn of events.[citation needed]
[edit]The London years
Nagra left Leicester for London, forgoing university to pursue a theatrical career and her childhood ambition of becoming an actress.[citation needed] Nagra's first London theatrical job came in 1994[citation needed] when she was cast as the Princess in the pantomime Sleeping Beauty, at the Theatre Royal Stratford East. Although most critics[who?] seemed rather unimpressed with the show, Nagra's performance is notable in that she was a woman of colour portraying a traditionally white character.[citation needed] After Sleeping Beauty, Nagra worked with small Indian theatre companies such as Tara Arts and Tamasha. These roles eventually led to the radio and television appearances that also defined her career throughout most of the 1990s. She also appeared in "The 6th wonder of the World: the Kali Tutti Story", in 1994.
In 1996, Nagra took a small part in Fair Ladies at a Game of Poem Cards, written by Chikamatsu Monzaemon and performed at Cottesloe, Royal National Theatre. It was there that she met Irish actor Kieran Creggan, with whom she later moved into a flat in Kennington, south London. Their relationship continued for five years.[citation needed]
Although lacking formal theatrical training, Nagra signed with veteran London-based agent Joan Brown,[citation needed] after which she was cast in her first television roles — a bit part on the British medical drama Casualty, and a small role in the television movie King Girl, in which Nagra played an abusive member of a girls' gang. In 1997, Nagra appeared in the three-part drama Turning World, starring Roshan Seth. The following year she appeared on Casualty for the second time. In 1999 she played the part of a convenience store clerk in the television movie Donovan Quick, starring Colin Firth. Also of note are appearances on the British comedy show Goodness Gracious Me. Nagra also starred in radio plays written including, amongst other, plays written by noted author and playwright Tanika Gupta. In 1998, Nagra was part of Dancing Girls of Lahore, a radio play co-written by her future Bend It Like Beckham co-star, Shaheen Khan. In 2001, Nagra provided the voice of a Muslim girl in Arena: The Veil, a docu-drama about women who choose to wear the Muslim head scarf. Her stage performances of this period are perhaps the most noteworthy. Not long after Fair Ladies at a Game of Poem Cards, Nagra was cast in 1997's Oh Sweet Sita, an adaptation of Indian mythology about Rama and his wife Sita.[citation needed] Starring in the title role of Sita, Nagra caught the attention of director Gurinder Chadha.
Nagra's other notable stage roles during this period are many and include appearances in Skeleton (1997), with critical acclaim for her "bright-eyed vivacity"[citation needed] as the village girl; A Tainted Dawn (1997), playing a Hindu boy accidentally left in Pakistan and raised by a Muslim couple; Fourteen Songs, Two Weddings & A Funeral (1998), showing her skills as a romantic comedienne, also to critical acclaim;[citation needed] Krishna's Lila — A Play of the Asian World (1999), as part of a five-person cast in a controversially titled piece;[citation needed] The Square Circle (1999), tackling the demanding role of an illiterate peasant girl who becomes a rape victim;[citation needed] and in River on Fire (2000), as Kiran, in a retelling of Sophocles' Antigone.
[edit]Bend It Like Beckham
Bend It Like Beckham was Nagra's breakthrough film. It was directed by British director Gurinder Chadha and also starred Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Anupam Kher, Shaheen Khan and Keira Knightley, for whom this film was also a career breakthrough. In the film, Nagra plays Jessminder "Jess" Bhamra, a teenage Sikh football player who idolizes football superstar David Beckham and defies her traditional parents to pursue her dreams of playing football.
The small-budget picture was a critical and financial success in the United Kingdom, eventually making the leap around the world and to Canada and the U.S. where it earned over $30 million at the box office.[citation needed] The script, conceived by Chadha with her husband Paul Mayeda Berges and Guljit Bindra, was written with Nagra in mind.[citation needed] While initially indifferent to the game of football, Nagra found the football-centred story to be both funny and touching.[citation needed] She agreed to audition and eventually accepted the role. An intensive ten-week training course of the game Futsal, led by noted coach Simon Clifford, put Nagra through rigorous nine-hour-a-day workouts. Nagra learned to "bend" or curve the ball in flight, as she did in a scene in the film. In a nod to Nagra's actual life, director Chadha wrote and incorporated a scene about Nagra's scar into the
Tamil Actress Stills
Tamil Actress Stills
Tamil Actress Stills
Tamil Actress Stills
Tamil Actress Stills
Tamil Actress Stills
Tamil Actress Stills
Tamil Actress Stills
Tamil Actress Stills
Tamil Actress Stills
Tamil Actress Stills
