Leena manimekalai

In Srivilliputtur, Tamil Nadu, Leena Manimekalai was born on Saturday, 7 June 1980. Gemini is her zodiac sign . Known for her controversial poster for the movie ‘Kaali’ showing a woman smoking cigarettes and holding a pride flag, Indian filmmaker, poet, and actor Leena Manimekalai attracts controversy for her poster.

Short Bio

Also See : https://www.storyhippo.com/bio/mychelle-johnson/

Early Life

• Her village had a custom of getting the daughter married to her maternal uncle as soon as she turned eighteen, she said. When Leena turned eighteen, her family also decided to marry her maternal uncle. 
• She attended Holy Cross Convent School in Madurai. Her undergraduate studies were at Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, and her graduate studies at York University, Canada, were in filmmaking .
• Leena’s father’s name was Iragupathi, who was a college professor. He died when Leena was in the second year of her college. 

• Despite not enjoying studying, she started getting good grades in class because she didn’t want to marry her uncle. In order to allow her to study further and not get married, she did this to make her parents happy, but they did not change their minds and she was married to her uncle.
• Leena ran away from her village after hearing their decision and began searching for a job in Chennai. In Chennai, she went for an interview with a Tamil magazine, which called her family and handed her over. As soon as she returned home, she told her family she would study engineering instead of getting married to her uncle. She assisted director Bharathiraja in his third year of college and learned about films from him .
• She enjoyed doing Bharatnatyam in school.

Career

After starting freelancing in 2002, she directed films that gained international acclaim . Her debut film, Mathamma , was released in 2003 . Other films in which she has appeared include The White Cat (2004), Love Lost (2005) , and Sengadal (the Dead Sea)2011 . Other short films she has directed include Break the Shackles (2004), Love Lost (2004), Waves After Waves (2006), Is it too much to Ask (2017), and Maadathy (2021) . As a Lone Leaf (2003), The First Beautiful Woman in the World (2009), Queen of Sluts (2011), Antharakanni (2012), and Chichili (2016) are some of her poems. In her second poem, The First Beautiful Woman in the World, she revealed her sexual preferences. She wrote Tamil’s first lesbian poetry book, Antharakanni . She got many awards and achievement like –

• Chicago Women in Director’s Chair International Film Festival , 2004 .
• AIFF award for the film Maadathy, an Unfairy Tale (2019) .
• Indian Panorama Selections for Sengadal , 2011 .
•  Iyal Best Poetry Award from The Tamil Literary Garden for Ulakin Azhakiya Muthal Penn , 2008 .
• L’Oreal Paris Femina Women Award , 2015.

Images : Google source.