Who is Ragini Shetty? - article!!

PEHCHAAN KAUN? Abhijatha Umesh is better known as Ragini Shetty on Bigg Boss

Perfect script

Endemol, the producers, selected Ragini as an unknown face to add intrigue to the show. "My daughter's name is Abhijatha Umesh. Ragini is the name they gave her on Bigg Boss," admits her mother Thaara Umesh, a model coordinator. "In fact, Abhijatha was auditioning to become a VJ on Channel [V] when Endemol offered her the show."

Abhijatha is 24 years old and has been working as a production assistant for the last three years. "She is into writing scripts and wants to make a film. She has also done modelling (Orbit chewing gum and some Tamil commercials that aired on Chennai Doordarshan). Post Bigg Boss, she has received acting offers too," adds her mother.

Interestingly, Abhijatha worked as an assistant director for serials like Kyun Hota Hai Pyar (Star Plus) and Hotel Kingston (Star One). Kyun Hota... had her Bigg Boss co-contestant Amit Sadh as the actor!

Creative family

Abhijatha attended Vidya Niketan School and studied visual arts at SRM College, Chennai. She has also done a course in fashion designing from Coimbatore. "A few months ago, she began working for an NGO in Bangalore. She is greatly interested in social work. But due to my illness, she had to quit and come back to Chennai," says Thaara.

Though Abhijata's family is originally from Chikmagalur, Karnataka, they moved to Bangalore several years ago before finally settling in Chennai. Her father, K H Umesh, is a filmmaker who specialises in special effects and animation. Presently, he is a consultant for a US-based film company in Chennai. He also makes films for the government of Karnataka.

Says Umesh, "I have been making films for 25 years. I studied filmmaking in Paris and worked there for a few years. After returning to India in the '80s, I was associated with the serial Panchatantra; the first animated show on Doordarshan."

Abhijatha has an elder brother Ajai Umesh, a fashion photographer. And Thaara's model co-ordination company is called Ajay-Abhi Associates (named after her children) with offices in Chennai and Mumbai (Lokhandwala).

"Though Chennai is home, all of us keep on travelling due to our work; we keep the airlines folk very happy," says Thaara. And does she appear as Abhijatha or Ragini on Bigg Boss? "She is Abhijatha, extremely honest. Even though she appears a tad irritated lately, she is doing well for herself," says her mother.

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