In what country did a popular actress play a role in a film about coming of age?
South Indian cinema
Genelia D'Souza
Genelia D'Souza (born 5 August 1987) is an Indian film actress and model.
 She has appeared in South Indian cinema and Bollywood films.
 After gaining wide attention in a Parker Pen commercial with Amitabh Bachchan, Genelia began her acting career with the box-office hit "Tujhe Meri Kasam" in 2003.
 She was recognized for her role in "Boys" the same year, and later established herself in Telugu cinema by acting in several Telugu films during 2003–2008.
Boys (2003 film)
Boys is a 2003 Indian Tamil coming-of-age film directed by S. Shankar.
 It stars newcomers Siddarth, Genelia, Bharath, Nakul, Manikandan and Sai Srinivas Thaman in the lead roles.
 The score and soundtrack are composed by A. R. Rahman.
 "Boys" was simultaneously released in Telugu as well with the same title.
Jessie Wallace
Jessie Wallace (born Karen Jane Wallace; 25 September 1971) is an English actress.
 She is known for her role of Kat Slater in the BBC soap opera "EastEnders", for which she won the National Television Awards for Most Popular Newcomer (2001) and Most Popular Actress (2003), and the British Soap Award for Best Actress (2011).
 She was nominated for the 2011 BAFTA TV Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Pat Phoenix in the BBC Four drama "The Road to Coronation Street" (2010). Mariani Ismail
Siti Mariam Ismail (20 April 1933 – 1 December 2015) or more popularly known as Mariani was an early Malaysian-Singaporean Malay actress, singer and model popular during the 1950s and 1960s.
 She was the older sister of Biduanda Saloma and sister-in-law of P.Ramlee.
 Mariani was one of the most popular actress at Jalan Ampas Studios in Singapore during the 50s and 60s, dubbed the "Golden Age of Malay Cinema" at the time.
 She has starred in more than 30 films over her 63 year career span. Samantha Giles
Samantha Elizabeth Giles (born 2 July 1971 in Maidstone) is an English actress, probably best known for playing Bernice Blackstock in "Emmerdale" (1998–2002 and 2004 and returned to the role in 2012, a role which earned her a TV Quick Award for Best Actress and a nomination for a National Television Awards for Most Popular Actress (both in 2000), and Sally Boothe in "Where the Heart Is" (2003–2005).
 Giles stated that she left Emmerdale as it was too much of a commute to her home. Lakshmi Menon (actress)
Lakshmi Menon (born 19 May 1996) is an Indian film actress and singer, who mainly appears in Tamil films along with few Malayalam films After making her acting debut in a supporting role in the Malayalam film "Raghuvinte Swantham Raziya" (2011), she played the female lead in her debut Tamil film "Sundarapandian" in 2012.
 "Sundarapandian", as well as her next three Tamil releases, were commercial successes and she was labelled as "the fastest rising star in Tamil cinema" by Sify.
 Later,she established herself as one of most successful and popular actress in south Indian cinema .
She received Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actress for her roles in "Sundarapandian" and "Kumki". Jal Shah
Jal Shah (Nepali: जल शाह ) (born c. 1982) is a Nepali actress who was popular during the late 1990s.
 She currently stays in USA .
 She is a very popular actress of Nepali movies.
 She started her career with a religious movie named "Shreeswasthani" in 1994 in a small role.
 She made debut in commercial movies in the movie "Avatar" (Incarnation) in 1996 when she was just 14 years which co-starred actors Rajesh Hamal and Gauri Malla directed by Prakash Sayami.
 Since then, she has acted in around 50 Nepali feature films.
 Her first superhit Kollywood/Nepali movie in a leading role was 1998 movie "Thuldai" starring very popular actor Shiv Shrestha and her in opposite.
 Her performance in the song "Suna Suna Sanam" from the movie was extremely loved by the viewers.
 She has portrayed various characters in movies ranging from a simple village girl to a complete housewife and a modern girl.
 She is mostly famous in emotional roles. Val Lehman
Valerie Kathleen Lehman (née Willis) (born 15 March 1943), known as Val Lehman, is an Australian actress and director, best known for her role as the protagonist 'Top Dog' Bea Smith in the Australian TV series "Prisoner" (aka "Prisoner: Cell Block H"), overseas.
 Lehman received three Logies for her performance (Best Lead Actress in a Series) and (Most Popular Actress) in 1982 and (Best Lead Actress in a Series in 1983.
 She was twice nominated for the Gold Logie.
 Val Lehman decided to leave the series towards the end of season five after becoming tired with playing the character, and she recorded her final scenes on Friday 13th May 1983, making her final appearance in episode 400.
 The final episode for the 1983 season was episode 416. Naseem Banu
Naseem Banu (1916–2002) was an Indian film actress.
 She was referred to as Naseem and known as "Beauty Queen" and the "first female superstar" of Indian Cinema.
 Starting her acting career in the mid-1930s she continued to act till mid-1950s.
 Her first film was "Khoon Ka Khoon" (Hamlet) (1935) with Sohrab Modi under whose Minerva Movietone banner she acted for several years.
 Her high-point came with Modi's "Pukar" (1939) in which she played the role of Empress Nur Jahan.
 According to composer Naushad she got the sobriquet Pari-Chehra (fairy face) Naseem through the publicity advertisements of her films.
 She was the mother of popular actress Saira Banu and mother-in-law to the renowned actor Dilip Kumar. Akihiko Hirata
Akihiko Hirata (平田昭彦 , Hirata Akihiko ) (December 16, 1927 – July 25, 1984), born Akihiko Onoda (野田昭彦 , Onoda Akihiko ) , was a Japanese film actor.
 While Hirata starred in many movies (including Hiroshi Inagaki's "Samurai" trilogy), he is most well known for his work in the "kaiju" genre, including such films as "King Kong vs. Godzilla", "The Mysterians", and his most famous role of Dr. Daisuke Serizawa, the brilliant but disturbed young scientist in the original "Godzilla", released in 1954.
 Hirata was married to the popular actress Yoshiko Kuga from 1961 until his death.
 He died after a long battle with lung cancer in 1984, at age 56.