her critical acclaim. Early and personal life Simran was born Rishibala Naval on 4 April 1976 to Punjabi parents in Mumbai. Simran has two younger sisters, Monal and Jyothi Anand, and a younger brother Sumeet Naval. Simran completed her schooling at St. Anthony’s high school and high schooling at Children Welfare Centre in Mumbai. She married Deepak Bagga, her childhood friend, on 2 December 2003. The couple has two sons. Career Debut and breakthrough (1995–1999) Simran made her debut in the 1995 film Sanam Harjai, the first Indian film to be shot in New Zealand. As a presenter on musical show Superhit Muqabla she was noticed by Jaya Bachan who cast her in ABCL’s Tere Mere Sapne, in which she received praise for her performance in the song Aankh Maarey. She made her debut in Malayalam cinema with 1996’s Indraprastham, a movie that was unsuccessful but for which Simran received praise for her performance. In 1997 she made her Kannada and Telugu debuts in Simhada Mari and Abbai Gari Pelli. In 1997 Simran also made her Tamil debut, and rose to stardom with V.I.P. For V.I.P. and another 1997 Tamil release, Nerrukku Ner, she would win the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut – South. Her success in those films focused her career on the Tamil film industry. Over the next two years, between 1998 and 1999, Simran was seen in 18 films. In Aval Varuvala she received positive acclaim with one reviewer stating that her performance showed “she can act”. She was the female lead in Natpukkaga which would go on to win the Filmfare Award for Best Film – Tamil and the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Film. In this time she was seen in the Hindi film Anari No.1 and the Telugu film Samarasimha Reddy, but it was her Tamil films that received the most attention. While there were some commercially unsuccessful films such as Ethirum Pudhirum and Time, most of her releases did well. Simran’s performance in Kanave Kalaiyadhe and Jodi were praised. During this period she was first seen with Prashanth in Kannedhirey Thondrinal. The commercial success of the film and their popularity as an onscreen pair meant that they would be seen together in several future films. Simran’s performance in the film Thulladha Manamum Thullum would garner her the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actress, and would lead to reviewers