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Genelia D'Souza is born on August 5, 1981 in Mumbai into a Mangalorean Catholic family, D'Souza was raised a Roman Catholic in the Bandra suburb of Mumbai. She is also often informally referred to as Geenu, her nick name.
Her mother Jeanette D'Souza was formerly a secretary to managing director with a Pharma MNC, who left her job in 2004 to help Genelia with her career. Her father Neil D'Souza, is a senior official with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). She also has a younger brother, Nigel D'Souza.
D'Souza studied at the Apostolic Carmel High School in Bandra and later joined St. Andrew's College in Bandra to pursue her Bachelor's Degree of Management Studies. She completed her degree while shooting for her first film, Tujhe Meri Kasam in 2003 and was just 22 at that time.
She liked sports and studies in college, was also a State level athlete, sprinter and a National level Football player. D'Souza did her first modeling assignment at age 15, the result of being spotted as the bridesmaid at a wedding.
She was selected for the Parker Pen commercial with Amitabh Bachchan, just two days before her exams, and had to shoot the next day. Initially she refused, because of her exam the next day, but the director persuaded D'Souza to shoot for the commercial.
She further did a Fair and Lovely 2003 Cricket World Cup advertisement with cricketer Krishnamachari Srikkanth.
D'Souza made her acting debut in Bollywood in 2003, with Tujhe Meri Kasam, alongside Ritesh Deshmukh, which failed to propel her career in Bollywood, but soon achieved recognition in the Tamil film Boys the same year which was directed by Shankar, and subsequently she started receiving Telugu film offers.
She made her Telugu debut in Satyam in 2003 opposite Sumanth, in which she played the role of a medical student, for which she was praised for her performance.The movie was a box-office success, and it raised her profile in the Telugu film industry.
In the 2006 Telugu romantic film Bommarillu, alongside Siddharth Narayan. The movie, a blockbuster at the box-office, grossed Rs 250 million (US$ 5.33 million) in India, and also won the 2006 Golden Nandi award. Her character was well-received by critics, and garnered her the Telugu Filmfare Award for Best Actress, besides Nandi Special Jury Award and Santosham Award for Best Actress.
She made her Kannada debut in Satya In Love in 2007, in which she was appreciated or her smile.
Her Bollywood breakthrough performance in 2008 was through the portrayal of the role of Aditi Mahant in the blockbuster Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na, which was an economic success across India and overseas, grossing Rs 564.1 million (US$ 12.02 million).
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