Shruti (actress)

Girija (born 18 September 1975), known by her screen name Shruti, is an Indian actress and politician. She has appeared in over about 150 Kannada films in addition to a few Tamil and Malayalam films. She was among the leading actresses in Kannada cinema during the 1990s and has won three Karnataka State Film Awards and four Filmfare Awards South in her career spanning over 25 years. She is known for performance in films such as Gauri Ganesha (1991), Aagatha (1995), Kalki (1996), Gowdru (2004), Akka Thangi (2008) and Puttakkana Highway (2011). She is sister of actor Sharan. She was called as Emotional queen and Karpoorada gombe of Sandalwood in the 90's.
As a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Shruti served as the chairperson of Karnataka Women and Child Development Corporation Board. Following her removal from the post in 2013, she joined the Karnataka Janata Paksha (KJP), which was eventually merged with the BJP in 2014. She is presently the chief secretary of BJP Mahila Morcha.
In 2016, by public vote, Shruti won the third season of game show Bigg Boss – the Indian version of Celebrity Big Brother, currently produced by Endemol India.

Born in a Kannada speaking family in Karnataka, Shruti's birth name is Girija. She was rechristened as Shruti by the famous actor-director Dwarakish who introduced her as a leading star for his 1990 film Shruthi.

Shruthi was in Puttur in her early ages of life. Shruti started her cinema career as a supporting actress and acted in Kannada movie Aasegobba Meesegobba as Shivarajkumar's sister. Later in the year 1990, she acted as heroine in the movie Shruti directed and produced by Dwarakish. This movie was a successful one running over 25 weeks. Some of the most famous and successful Kannada movies from Shruti are, Shruti, Taayi Illada Tavaru, Veerappa Nayaka, Gauri Ganesha, Bombat Hendthi (Karnataka State award Winner), Muddina Maava, Midida Hrudayagalu. Soon after these films, Shruti was stereotyped for tear jerking roles in many Kannada films. She won her first Karnataka State Film Award for Best Actress for the movie Aagatha (1995) directed by Suresh Heblikar.

In her career spanning for more than two decades, she acted with all the leading male stars in the film industry of her times like Dr.Vishnuvardhan, Dr.Ambrish, Shivarajkumar, Shashikumar, Ramesh Aravind, Jaggesh, Devaraj, Sunil, Abhijeeth Ram Kumar and others.

Her Tamil film Kalki (1996) directed by the ace director K. Balachander won her the Filmfare Award and also the Tamil Nadu State Award for Best Actress.

Shruti made her small screen debut in the Malayalam serial "Sthreethvam" aired on Surya TV during 2005. Also,her Tamil daily serial, Karthigai Pengal aired on Sun TV from July 2012.

Shruthi entered Kannada small screen by entering into Bigg Boss Kannada 3 house as contestant. On 31 Jan 2016 at Bigg Boss Kannada 3 "Grand Finale" she grab Bigg Boss Kannada 3 title defeating Chandan Kumar.

Shruti was married to film director S. Mahendar for 11 years and divorced in 2009. Post her divorce, she was romantically linked with Chakravarthy, a journalist-turned-director and they married in June 2013 and divorced one year later.

• Sthreetvam (Malayalam) – Surya TV – 07.00PM Prime Time, aired during the year 2005
• Karthigai Pengal (Tamil) – Sun TV – 10.00PM Prime Time
• "Bigg Boss Kannada 3" (Kannada) - Colors Kannada - 9.00PM 2016 - Winner
• Maja Talkies Guest
• Super Minute
• Mareyalare TV 9
• Hejje Gurututv 9