Vishakha Singh
Vishakha Singh is an Indian actress, producer and entrepreneur. She gained popularity as Neetu Singh, Zafar's girlfriend in Fukrey Series. She has appeared in many South Indian language films, before starring in Bollywood projects with director Ashutosh Gowariker's 2010 period piece "Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey", alongside Abhishek Bachchan and Deepika Padukone. She was nominated for the "Best Breakthrough Performance of the Year" in 2010, for the same role by StarDust Awards. She also works as a part-time venture capitalist in her father's company based out of London and Dubai. Her father's name  is Mr. Jitendra Singh. She is a frequent figure on the Red Carpet at the Cannes Film Festival and was part of the producers workshop at the Festival de Cannes in 2014. Vishakha has been invited to be on the jury of one of Rome's biggest film festivals for independent Italian and European filmmakers, Rome Independent Film Festival (RIFF) in May 2015. and was also a guest and judge at the Molise Cinema Film Festival in Italy. She is also one of the committee members of Srishti Madurai. Her production house Lokaa Entertainment is a Mumbai-based, content & creativity  driven motion pictures production and distribution company founded in 2016. Lokaa Entertainment co-produced the 2016 National award-winning film, Onaatah, directed by Pradip Kurbah. In 2020, it produced the children's musical film, "Atkan Chatkan" that was Presented by musical maestro A.R. Rehman. The film was directed by Shiv Hare and has renowned percussionist Sivamani as Music Director It also, contains a rare musical cameo by Amitabh Bachchan. It was recognised in 2020, as the Best International Feature at The South London Film Festival 2020 and in 2021, it won awards for Best Children's Film, Best Music and  Best Actor at the Jaipur International Film Festival Prior to founding Lokaa Entertainment Vishakha Co-Produced the film, "Haraamkhor" in 2017 with Anurag Kashyap and in 2012 the film, Peddlers with Guneet Monga. Vishakha Singh is also an entrepreneur. As principal co-founder of Iconic Bot (Vicit Infot Tech Pvt. Ltd.), India's first multi-lingual AI powered celebrity fan management tool, she is spearheading the initiative to make artificial intelligence a part of the promotional mix of the Indian film industry. Vishakha was a winner of the Women Entrepreneur Quest 2017 (WEQ) - an annual contest sponsored by Anitab.org India  and the Government of India's Department of Science and Technology (DST), WEQ highlights and rewards exceptional technology startups founded by women. The Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF) also plays an integral role in supporting and organizing WEQ 2017. Vishakha was also selected for Zone Startups India's empower 2017 initiative which selected 15 tech startups across themes such as IoT, Artificial Intelligence, and Deep Learning for an accelerator programme. In an article titled, "Here’s a closer look at the 15 female tech entrepreneurs who made it to the 2nd edition of empoWer Zone Startups", on the  Indian tech blog, YourStory, the author mentions empoWer as the first tech accelerator for women entrepreneurs in India. Vishakha is also part of the Facebook SheLeadsTech initiative to promote women entrepreneurs. In 2015, Vishakha launched Thappad.com a social media app aimed at gauging trends in society. Career. She did her schooling from Abu Dhabi Indian School (ADIS) and Delhi Public School. She completed her graduation in business studies from Delhi University. She said that she wanted to be a teacher and did her post graduation in Advertising and Public Relations from Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi (1998-1999  batch). She started modelling in 2007 and appeared in many television and print commercials. She made her feature film debut with a Telugu film "Gnaapakam" in 2007, which did not do well. After that, she starred in one Tamil, and two Kannada films, "Housefull" and "Antaraatma". She made her Hindi film debut with "Hum Se Jahan", which was never released on DVD and only in theatres, in 2008. However, she got noticed in director Ashutosh Gowarikar's "Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey", for which she received a "Best Breakthrough Performance – Female" nomination from Stardust Awards (2011). She acted in Abhijeet  Sengupta's "Do Aur Do Paanch", which did not release. In 2012 Vishakha ventured into film production by co-producing "Peddlers", a film directed by Vasan Bala. The other producers were Guneet Monga and Anurag Kashyap Films. "Peddlers" was selected at the critic week at the Cannes Film Festival., She has also co-produced "Haraamkhor", directed by Shlok Sharma, with Guneet Monga and AKFPL. The film is set to release in 2015. After three years, she made a comeback to acting in Tamil films. Vishakha's second Tamil film "Kanna Laddu Thinna Aasaiya" released on 13 January 2013 and which  went on to become the first blockbuster of the Tamil film industry in that year. Back in Bollywood, she signed on three films that released in succession in 2013. Her first two films were Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani's "Fukrey" and Vikram Bhatt's "Ankur Arora Murder Case"; both the films released on 14 June 2013. Her third film was director Shahant Shah's "Bhajathe Raho", which released the next month. She said that "Fukrey" made a lot of difference and changed people's perceptions and that she turned down nine films after "Fukrey". Vishakha also made her Malayalam  debut in director Rajesh Pillai's forthcoming film "Motorcycle Diaries", and her next Tamil film is with "Vaaliba Raja", with the same team that worked on "Kanna Laddu Thinna Aasaiya". She returns to Telugu films with "Rowdy Fellow", opposite Nara Rohit and has stated that she plays "a girl who looks like an angel but is a devil in disguise". She is also acting in "The Maya Tape", a horror thriller, directed by Nikhil Alag, in which she plays a journalist. She was signed for an important role in the film, albeit a cameo role, in R. Kannan's "Oru  Oorla Rendu Raja". Social activism. Vishakha Singh along with Gopi Shankar Madurai launched multiple complaints on behalf of athlete Santhi Soundarajan in National Commission for Scheduled Castes and National Human Rights Commission of India also initiated "Justice For Santhi" Campaign which was instrumental in fetching her a permanent job at Tamil Nadu Sports Development Authority.