Pooja (born 25 June 1981 as Pooja Gauthami Umashankar) is an actress who has appeared in Tamil, Sinhalese and Malayalam films.
Following a series of successful commercial ventures, Bala's Naan Kadavul saw Pooja's performance as a blind beggar praised by the critics, securing major awards, including the South Filmfare and Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, in the process.
Her mother is a Sri Lankan Sinhalese and her father is Kannadiga. The languages she can speak are Kannada, Tamil, Sinhalese, and English. She went to school and college in Bangalore, Baldwin's and Mount Carmel College respectively. Her fathers name is Uma Shankar who was at Valparai working with Hindustan Unilever Limited as a manager.Her father was not at all interested in film industry but she was attached to it.
Her debut film was Ullam Ketkumae in Tamil with Shaam, Laila, Arya, and Asin Thottumkal which was directed by the late Jeeva. It wasn't released until her second and third films Jay Jay and Attagasam released in 2003 and 2004 respectively. She bagged one of the main roles in Bala's Naan Kadavul by replacing Bhavana and was appreciated by the critics for her fantastic performance.
She became a sensation in Sri Lankan film industry and a household name after the success of Anjalika (2005) and Asai Man Piyambanna (2007). This also earned her the role of broadband ambassador for SLT (Sri Lanka Telecom).
She is one of the judges in the popular reality dance show Aatam Paatam Kondatam opposite dance master Prasanna on Kalaignar TV,suntv.