Amala Paul (born 26 October 1991) is an Indian film actress who works in the South Indian Film Industry. After appearing in supporting roles in the Malayalam film Neelathamara. She received critical acclaim for the portrayal of a controversial character in the film Sindhu Samaveli. Despite the failure of that film, Amala became noted after playing the title role in Mynaa, receiving critical acclaim for her work.
Amala was born in a Christian family at Ernakulam, Kerala to Paul Varghese and Annice Paul. Her brother Abijith Paul also appeared in films following Amala's entry into the film industry. After completing her schooling from Nirmala Higher Secondary School Aluva, she took a sabbatical to begin a career in films, but has since joined St. Teresa's College in Kochi, to pursue a B.A. degree in English. Her father had been strictly against Amala pursuing an acting career, but was forced to accept her decision with her brother, Abijith Paul, strongly backing her ambition. She later claimed that she had performing arts in her, revealing that her mother was a singer and her dad was into theatre in college. Amala had changed her on-screen name to Anakha, on director Samy's insistence, who cited that another actress, Amala had already made her name popular. However, after the failure of her 2011 movie Sindhu Samaveli, she reverted to her birth name, since she felt that the replacement had brought her bad luck.
As early as 2011, when Amala was working on Deiva Thirumagal, she was romantically linked to director A. L. Vijay, but denied that the pair were dating. On 7 June 2014, she got engaged to Vijay at Aluva in Kochi. The couple got married on 12 June 2014 at Mayor Ramanathan Chettiar Hall, Chennai. In 2016, Amala and Vijay filed for a divorce due to disagreement between her and her in-laws on continuing her acting career. They were granted divorce in February 2017.
