Priyanka Kothari alias Nisha Kothari – Indian actress best known for her appearance in Ram Gopal Varma movies

Priyanka Kothari, also credited as Nisha Kothari and Amoha is a model turned actress who appears in Bollywood and south Indian films. She has appeared in many movies produced and directed by Ram Gopal Varma. She predominantly works in Hindi films, and has appeared in a few Telugu, Tamil and Kannada films. Raaj-The Showman (2009) is one of her major works, for which she was nominated at Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Kannada. Aag, Sarkar, James, Go, Agyaat, The Killer, Agyaat etc are some of her Bollywood works. Best known for her glamorous roles, her appearance in the music video of remixed version of ‘Chadti Jawani’ is popular.

She was credited as Amoga in her debut film, Jay Jay released in Tamil

Priyanka Kothari is of Bengal origin and was born in year 1983 into a business family. She completed her higher studies in Delhi. After studies she started her modelling career. In 2003 she marked her screen debut through Tamil movie, Jay Jay opposite Madhavan which was a commercial hit. Her appearance in Chadti Jawani Remix (2002) got noticed. She bagged her first Telugu project Madhyanam Hathya (2004) after this.

Her debut Bollywood movie, James gave her the image of a sex symbol

She was launched to Bollywood by Ram Gopal Varma through James (2005), and the movie was directed by Rohit Jugraj. She played an extra-glamorous role in the movie, which was a disaster. However she earned a sex symbol image in Bollywood and a few more projects. She played a brief role in Ram Gopal Varma’s Sarkar. RGV casted her aside James’ co-star Mohit Ahlawat in the movie, Shiva (2006) which was a box office flop. Later she appeared in a string of flops which include The Killer, opposite Emraan Hashmi. She played a club dancer in the movie.

After a string of Bollywood flops, she moved to South

She returned to south Indian cinema with Telugu action film, Okka Magaadu. She occasionally appeared in Bollywood films such as Agyaat, Aag, Darna Zaroori Hai etc directed by RGV. She also appeared in item songs in different language films. She appeared opposite Puneeth Rajkumar in big budget Kannada movie, Raaj the Showman in 2009, and her performance earned her a nomination at Filmfare.

Though she appeared in a string of movies none of them were box office hits. Kannada-Telugu bilingual Bullet Rani (2016) was her last theatre release. She married Delhi based businessman Bhasker Prakash same year and retired from films. Though she appeared in more than 25 films, she failed to establish a career in Bollywood or south Indian cinema. Majority of her films were produced or directed by Ram Gopal Varma.

Priyanka Kothari – Some interesting and less-known facts

1. She is a trained Kathak dancer. She studied this art form for 6 years.

2. Her debut Telugu flick Madhyanam Hathya was later remade into Hindi titled My Wife’s Murder starring Anil Kapoor. She was not a part of the project.

3. Chadti Jawani Remix (2002) was her first appearance for any music video. She later appeared in remix songs such as Kiss U Day & Night Remix and Nako Uga Tu Maru Boba, apart from special appearances for movies such as Darling, Darna Zaroori Hai etc.

4. Kothari is the co-founder of Nisha Foundation.

5. She is a member of the International Film and Television Club of Asian Academy of Film & Television.

6. She is graduated in Chemistry from Delhi.

7. She briefly attended acting classes of Kishore Namit Kapoor.

8. Nisha was in a relationship with Ram Gopal Varma, soon after actress Antara Mali exited from his life. Nisha worked in a series of RGV films, though failed to succeed.