Tamannaah is currently, perhaps, the ruling actress in Tamil cinema following the super successes of her films like Padikathavan (2009) and Ayan (2009) and, what's more, is now beginning to be recognised as a promising actress as well with Kandein Kadhalai (2009), the Tamil re-make of Jab We Met (2007).

She was born Tamanna Bhatia in Mumbai on December 21, 1989 and did her schooling at the Maneckji Cooper Education Trust School, Mumbai. Dabbling into modelling while still in her mid-teens, Tamannah found herself playing the lead opposite Sameer Aftab in Chand sa Roshan Chehra (2005). The film sank at the box-office and Tamannaah did what many flop Hindi heroines did next, go down South debuting there with the Telugu film, Sri (2005). She made her debut in Tamil cinema with Kedi (2006) co-starring Ravi Krishna and Ileana D'Cruz but the film flopped at the box-office.

Tamanaah's career changed for the better in 2007 with two films, both looking at college life and targetted at the youth - Happy Days in Telugu and Kalloori in Tamil. Happy Days, opposite newcomer Varun Sandhesh, first brought her in the limelight and was a huge success at the box office while Kalloori, produced by S Shankar, with her playing opposite another newcomer, Akil got her great appreciation for her performance as well. In the film she played a withdrawn rich girl, who has just lost her mother and is the new girl in college. Akil's group of friends take her in and slowly she opens up in life and supports poor boy Akil in trying to make a better life for himself. The film, based on a real life incident in Dharmapuri, where 3 girls were burnt to death in a bus during rioting, saw Tamannaah being nominated forthe Filmfare Award for Best Actress in Tamil.

With the huge box office success of Padikathavan co-starring Dhanush and Ayan, co-starring Suriya, Tamannaah became the hottest property amongst Tamil film heroines. Though it has to be said that in Ayan, she fails to make any major impact, is there only for eye candy and makes for an insipid heroine. But then the the script doesn't give her anything to work with either. The success of these two films coupled with top Tamil heroines, Asin and Trisha, concentrating on Hindi cinema, saw Tamanaah take over as the top actress in Kollywood.

Kandein Kadhalai, saw her stock go even higher and what's more, she has universally been praised from even the staunchest of critics for her performance as the lively chatterbox who brings stuffed shirt businessman, Bharath, out of his shell. The film is doing reasonably well at the box-office and a major landmark in Tamannaah's career.

Currently, Tamannaah is looking forward to the release of Paiyaa (2010) co-starring Karthi and is busy with the filming of Thillalangadi (2010) co-starring Jayam Ravi and Shaam, and Sura (2010), Vijay's 50th film.