Amala Akkineni

Amala was born in Kalaikunda, West Bengal, to a Bengali father, M.K. Mukherjee and an Irish mother, Meitim Connolly.^[8][9][10] Their family soon shifted to Chennai, where she was brought up.^[11] She has a brother.

Amala holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree^[12] in Bharatanatyam from the Kalakshetra Foundation, Chennai.^[13][14] She has given many live performances worldwide.^[15][16] She is fluent in English, Tamil, and Telugu and can also understand Bengali.^[8][17]

Amala married Telugu actor Nagarjuna Akkineni on 11 June 1992 and the couple has a son, actor Akhil Akkineni born in 1994. She is the step-mother of actor Naga Chaitanya.^[18] They currently live in Hyderabad.^[16]

She was persuaded to join films by T. Rajendar, who visited her home with his wife Usha and convinced her mother to let her act in the film, which would be a classical film featuring her Bharatanatyam dancing.^[19] That film was Mythili Ennai Kaathali (1986) which was a box office hit. After the film's success, she acted in several Tamil films such as Mella Thirandhathu Kadhavu (1986), Panneer Nadhigal (1986) and Velaikkaran (1987).^[20] She acted with her future husband Akkineni Nagarjuna in hits such as Nirnayam and Siva.^[21] She garnered acclaim for her role in the film Ulladakkam (1991).

She quit acting in 1992 following her marriage to Nagarjuna. After a hiatus of 20 years she made a comeback in 2012 with the Telugu film Life is Beautiful.^[22] She received a CineMAA Award for Best Outstanding Actress and Telugu category Filmfare Award for best supporting actress in 2013 for her portrayal.

She returned to Malayalam cinema with C/O Saira Banu after a gap of 25 years, since Ulladakkam.^[23]