Bold and Beautiful: The Journey of Amala Paul

Amala Paul is an Indian actress who was born on 26 October 1991 at Ernakulam, Kerala to Paul Varghese and Annice Paul. After completing her schooling from Nirmala Higher Secondary School Aluva, she took a sabbatical to begin a career in films, and joined St. Teresa's College in Kochi, to pursue a B A degree in English. Lal Jose offered her a supporting role in his Malayalam film, Neelathamara in 2009. Despite the film's success, the film failed to attract her further offers. She went on to sign low-budget tamil comedy films. Vikadakavi, was her sixth release after a delay. Amala was labelled as "minimal" that made her take work in Samy's Sindhu Samaveli (2010), she portrayed the role of Sundari, who has an illicit controversial relationship with her father-in-law. 

Though she was approached for 'Mynaa' a little later, she signed on for Sindhu Samaveli before listening to the entire story and completed the film. Upon release, Sindhu Samaveli had contrasting reviews. Amala claimed that she even received death threats from anonymous callers and was publicly scolded by women at a cinema hall in Chennai.

Amala's next release, the romantic drama film Mynaa (2010), by Prabhu Solomon, made her a recognised actress in the industry. The film had garnered much anticipation as noted distributors Udhayanidhi Stalin and Kalpathi S. Aghoram purchased the rights of the film after being impressed with it. Amala played the village girl, Mynaa and the film was success at the box office and she secured the Vijay Award for Best Debut Actress, and nominations in the Best Actress category at the Filmfare Awards and the Vijay Awards.

Following the success of the Tamil film, Mynaa, Amala emerged to become the "new top star of 2011". She appeared in a supporting role in the Malayalam film Ithu Nammude Katha and new age tale of five friends Vikadakavi. Both films opened to limited screens and her performance gained recognition. She appeared in Deiva Thirumagal, directed by Vijay, opposite Vikram and Anushka, and Ram Gopal Varma's Telugu film Bejawada, marking her début in Telugu.

Amala them did a Tamil film, Vettai, Balaji Mohan's Tamil -Telugu bilingual Kadhalil Sodhappuvadhu Yeppadi / Love Failure, a commercial successes, a romantic Malayalam thriller Muppozhudhum Un Karpanaigal, opposite Atharvaa. She paired with veteran Malayalam actor Mohanlal in the film Run Baby Run, a commercially successful film.

In 2013, Amala starred in V V Vinayak's Telugu film "Naayak", opposite Ram Charan, a big critical as well as commercially successful film that year. Her next film was Puri Jagannadh's romantic comedy Iddarammayilatho opposite Allu Arjun. She was later seen in A L Vijay's action entertainer Thalaivaa, opposite Vijay and a Malayalam film Oru Indian Pranayakadha, a blockbuster at the Kerala box office and she received SIIMA Award for Best Actress – Malayalam consecutively for two years. In 2014, she did Nimirndhu Nil, opposite Jayam Ravi, which was simultaneously shot in Telugu as Janda Pai Kapiraju, opposite Nani. Her next, Velaiilla Pattadhari, opposite Dhanush was a success. 

In 2015, Amala appeared in Mili, Lailaa O Lailaa, 2 Penkuttikal, Shajahanum Pareekuttiyum, a Tamil film Amma Kanakku, playing the mother of a 15-year old. She made her Kannada debut in the film Hebbuli, opposite Sudeep, a great success in the Karnataka box office. Later, she acted in Achayans,Velaiilla Pattadhari 2, Thiruttu Payale 2, Bhaskar Oru Rascal (2018), Ratsasan (2018) and Aadai (2019). In 2021, she appeared in anthology film with Kutty Story and Pitta Kathalu, Telugu web series, Kudi Edamaithe, Ranjish Hi Sahi in Hindi and Victim: Who is Next? in Tamil. The OTT film, Cadaver (2022), an investigative thriller was released on Disney+ Hotstar.

In 2011, when Amala was working on Deiva Thirumagal, she was romantically linked to director A. L. Vijay. On 7 June 2014, she got engaged to Vijay at Aluva in Kochi. In 2016, Amala and Vijay got divorced in 2017.