Soumya Bollapragada

Soumya Bollapragada is an Indian actress, writer, director and a model.

Life and career
She is the niece of actress Gautami and great-granddaughter of the Indian thinker U. G. Krishnamurti and has acted in Telugu films primarily. She is also related to Nirmala Sitaraman through her mother. Soumya is also the rakhi sister (sworn sister) of Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil the first openly gay prince in the world.

Her father Divakar was an engineer in the Merchant Navy, her mother a housewife. She graduated from St. Joseph's College for Women. She ran a monthly magazine Evoke for three and half years in Vizag. In addition to this, she has won three International awards in poetry at the age of 14. She holds a bachelor's degree in English literature and Psychology from Andhra University She was one of the six finalists in Miss South India where girls from Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and AP had participated. Soumya who is 5 ft tall secured the Ms Photogenic and Ms Perfect 10 rounds in the contest. She had also won the Ms. Personality round for her height in the Miss Andhra contest held in Hyderabad in January 2005 and the Miss NIFD title organised by the National Institute of Fashion Design in Visakhapatnam in April 2005. She got trained under the famous Koushik Ghosh for this pageant.

She has modelled for commercials for brands such as KPL Coconut Oil in Kerala, Sun Flower shopping mall, and Anarkali Boutique.

She made her debut in the cross over cult hit film The Angrez with her portrayal of the character Tanya garnering praise. She has a theatre background which helped her to get into the film industry. She acted in a play in Andhra University and was spotted by Kuntaa Nikkil, director of The Angrez. This film is still considered a cult classic in Deccani cinema. She also acted in the English film Stalemate and played the role of an assistant surgeon. She made her debut in Tamil in Thozha with the stars of Chennai 600028. She was paired with Vasanth Vijay in this film and she has a remake of the hit song “Oru Naayagan” to her credit in this film. She also played an important role in Ravi Krishna starring Netru Indru Naalai (Ninna Nedu Repu in Telugu). She was part of Mugguru produced by Movie Mogul D Ramaniadu and directed by V N Aditya. She acted in the horror thriller Poga and in Ramadandushe and was praised for her performance as a journalist in the latter.

She is the founder of the theatre group Applause – The Theatre People. She has also hosted TV shows like Jollywood Express, a comedy show with actor AVS on Gemini TV and Zee Sound Party on Zee Telugu. She was the winner of the country wide Lucky 13 contest held by author Ashwin Sanghi. In addition to this she has worked as a writer for Chhota Bheem, Mighty Raju, Arjun, Chimpoo & Simpoo.