in the Tamil film Lesa Lesa (2003) by Indian film director Priyadarshan, which marked the beginning of her professional career as an actress. She followed a tight shooting schedule while in college, making it difficult for her to continue her education. However, she compensated by attending summer classes. Film career 1999–2003: Early career and success Soon after her pageant success, Trisha began her acting career in a minor supporting role as Simran's friend in the romantic drama Jodi (1999). The first film she accepted was the Priyadarshan-directed Lesa Lesa, with the promotional posters for the film, also creating an offer to star in the A. R. Rahman musical hit, Enakku 20 Unakku 18 (2003). However, both the projects' releases were severely delayed, and her first release was Ameer's Mounam Pesiyadhe (2002) opposite Surya Sivakumar. The film became a moderate success at the box office and managed to gain credentials for Trisha, with critics claiming that she was "undoubtedly a refreshing new find, with sparkling eyes and appealing demeanour", also going onto praise the dubbing artiste, Savitha Reddy, who has since regularly dubbed for Trisha. Manasellam (2003), her second project, saw her play a cancer patient; but the film went unnoticed. Her subsequent release was the Hari-directed action film, Saamy with Vikram. She played a soft-spoken college-going Brahmin girl and received positive reviews for her performance, with Sify's reviewer citing that she was "appealingly sensual" and looked "glamorous", and another critic writing that she looked "very pretty" and suited the role. The masala flick became the biggest blockbuster of the year, grossing 16 crores, and landed Trisha new offers, including several high-budget productions. Lesa Lesa, which was supposed to be her début, released next. The romantic musical, based on the 1998 Malayalam film Summer in Bethlehem, fetched generally positive reviews. Following Lesa Lesa, she appeared in Alai which proved unsuccessful at the box office. Then released her Enakku 20 Unakku 18 (2003) which was commercially unsuccessful, but was critically acclaimed because of its music and visuals which helped propel her career. 2004–2008: Stardom in Telugu and Tamil cinema In 2004, she débuted in Telugu cinema with M S Raju's romantic action film Varsham, which turned her into an overnight sensation. Critics lauded her performance as Sailaja, a middle-class girl who becomes a film star on her father's insistence; Jeevi from Idlebrain claimed that she was "beautiful" and a "big plus to