Aamir Khan’s superstar heroine, ‘Queen of Kollywood’ bid goodbye to showbiz after marriage. Now she is rarely on social media, her home has no television. Husband says: 'We only have...'

Asin Thottumkal was once one of the highest-paid stars in South India. A sought-after leading lady in Tamil, Telugu and Bollywood in the 2000s, she was given the moniker 'the Queen of Kollywood'. Among Hindi speaking audience, she’s perhaps best known for playing Kalpana, Aamir Khan’s character’s chirpy love interest in the film Ghajini. However, she bid adieu to showbiz in 2016, after she married Micromax co-founder Rahul Sharma that year. For the past decade or so, Asin was rarely seen on social media, and she kept away from the limelight. In a recent interview, Rahul opened up about his superstar wife.

In a chat with MyGov India, the entrepreneur said the actress has been his rock and is very strict about ensuring their daughter Arin Rayn isn’t addicted to television or social media. They didn’t have a television at home and have made their daughter seek entertainment from books instead.

“We have not given Arin any screens thus far — no TVs or mobile phones. We only have books at home. We probably have more books at home than Arin has at her school. She is in Class 2 right now, but we already have books for Classes 8 and 9 at home. I quip once in a while, saying, ‘Let her appear for the Class 10 board exam as well. What difference does it make?’ It’s all Asin’s contribution to us,” he said.


Hailing from Kerala, Asin made her debut at 15 with the 2001 satire film Narendran Makan Jayakanthan Vaka. She had her breakthrough with the Telugu film Amma Nanna O Tamila Ammayi in 2003 and won a Filmfare Best Telugu Actress Award for the film. The following year, she made her Tamil debut with the sports drama M. Kumaran Son of Mahalakshmi.

Asin went on to star as the female lead in several commercially successful films, cementing her position among Tamil cinema’s leading actresses. Her notable releases during this period included the action dramas Sivakasi (2005), Varalaru (2006), Pokkiri (2007), Vel (2008) and Dasavathaaram (2008). In recognition of her contributions to Tamil cinema, she received the Pride of South Indian Cinema award at the South Indian International Movie Awards (SIIMA) in 2013.

She made her Bollywood debut with the 2008 psychological thriller Ghajini, opposite Aamir Khan. It was a remake of the Tamil film of the same name and became a major success. She went on to star opposite Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar in hits such as Ready, Housefull 2 (2012) and Khiladi 786 (2012), etc. Her last film was the 2015 film All Is Well opposite Abhishek Bachchan.