Abhirami (actress)

Abhirami (born Divya Gopikumar in July 1983) is an Indian actress and television host. She has acted in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada movies. Her film career, which started in 1995, was interrupted in 2004 when she settled in the United States for her studies. She made a comeback in 2013.

Abhirami was born as Divya to Gopikumar and Pushpa. Although she is a Tamilian and her mother tongue is Tamil, she was born and grew up in Kerala as her parents were both bank officials settled in Trivandrum. 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 the United States when she got a job there. Her parents are currently yoga instructors in Ohio.

Abhirami acted for the first time in director Adoor Gopalakrishnan's film Kathapurushan; it was her only film as a lead 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. She also appeared in the 100-episode Malayalam serial Akshaya Pathram (Malayalam: അക്ഷയപാത്രം), directed by Sreekumaran Thampi. 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 the series Mercara directed by Jude Attipetty. Later she acted in films such as Millennium Stars, Njangal Santhushtaranu, and Sradha before shifting to Tamil cinema. Her first Tamil film was Vaanavil (2001) 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 which 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. In 2003, she appeared opposite Upendra in the film Raktha Kanneeru and opposite Shivrajkumar in Sri Ram. In 2004 she retired from the film industry and settled in the United States for her studies. She went on to work as the marketing director of an MNC there.

In 2013, Abhirami was the voice of Pooja Kumar in both parts of Kamal Haasan's Vishwaroopam and she went on to host Rishimoolam, a talk show on the Tamil television channel Puthuyugam. The following year, she made her comeback in Malayalam films with Apothecary, in which she played the role of a gynaecologist. She has also acted in the film Ithu Thaanda Police in which she played the role of a Sub-Inspector named Arundhati Varma.

She has also anchored a reality show on Mazhavil Manorama titled Made For Each Other. She also dubbed for Pooja Kumar in Uthama Villain.

Abhirami is married to Rahul Pavanan, grandson of writer Pavanan.

• Top Ten, anchor of musical program (Asianet)
• Akshaya Pathram, serial (Asianet)
• Rishimoolam, host (Puthuyugam)
• Made For Each Other, host (Mazhavil Manorama)