Jessie Wallace - Best Actress at Soap Awards

Jessie Wallace took one for the EastEnders team as she accepted the coveted Best Actress award at the 2011 British Soap Awards. Despite her soap success as the much-loved character of Kat Moon, this is the first time the 39-year-old has scooped the Best Actress title. Wallace won the title for her portrayal in the harrowing baby-swap plot, where her young son was snatched from his cot. The soap star is due to marry in August this year and looked radiant at the Manchester award in her Pippa Middleton inspired white floating dress with diamante neckline.

She beat off stiff competition in the sought-after category as other nominees Katherine Kelly (Coronation Street), Jane Cox (Emmerdale) and Claire Cooper (Hollyoaks) graciously accepted the defeat. The award was presented by Pirates of the Caribbean star Tom Hollander and the actress was clearly delighted to accept the title - despite being very gracious and claiming one of the other stars deserved it more. “Wow, I genuinely did not expect to get this,” Jessie said, before gesturing to fellow competitor Jane Cox who plays Lisa Dingle in Emmerdale and adding: “You deserve this Jane, you really do, you’re fantastic. What great competition.”

The actress then went on to say: “I want to thank my on-screen husband Shane (Richie), my off-screen husband-to-be Vince (Morse) and Tallulah (her daughter) - go to bed!  To everyone who voted for me, thank you.” As well as the Best Actress award, Jessie also scooped the Best On-Screen Partnership with Shane Richie, again for the controversial baby-swap plot. The battle of the soaps was closer than ever this year as Corrie won an impressive nine awards however EastEnders did hold on to the highly-regarded honour of Best British Soap.

Kalaimamani Sujatha is no more

Versatile actress Sujatha who acted in over 300 films in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi and Malayalam passed away today at Chennai. This legendry actress did unforgettable films in her film career. 58 year old actress died out of ill health in the afternoon on Tuesday.

She debuted into films with 'Thabaswini', a Malayalam film.Her first Telugu film was 'Gorintaku'. Her last Telugu flick was 'Sri Ramadasu' directed by K Raghavendar Rao. She acted all the big heroes of her times like Kamal Haasan, Rajnikanth, Shobhan Babu, Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Krishna et al.

Suthradarulu, Pandanti Jeevitham, Prema Tharangalu, Vamshagouravam, Bebbuli, Sandhya, Aasha Jyothi, Guru Sishyulu, Sarkas Ramudu, Guppedu , Mayadari Krishnudu were a few films in which she delivered best performances. She is counted as one of the finest actors in the South Indian cinema industry. Like Smita Patil in Hindi, Sujatha was known to act in films that potrayed women empowerment.She won Nandi award for her endearing action in the year 1997 for the film 'Pelli'.

Tollywood expressed shock at her sudden demise. She was an award winning actress in all the languages she performed and was conferred 'Kalaimamani' by Tamilnadu government.

Karthika - the hero of Ko

Karthika, daughter of yesteryear South Indian actress Radha, made her debut in the Telugu film Josh with Nag Chaitanya. Then came her Malayalam film Makara Manju on the life of the world renowned painter Raja Ravi Varma, played by ace cinematograoher Santosh Sivan.

The actress will now be seen playing a journlaist in this week's Tamil release Ko , which has been directed by National Award winning cinematographer, K V Anand.

In a chat with A Ganesh Nadar, Karthika talks about her early days and her acting experience in the movies.

Tell us about your early days.

I was born and brought up in Mumbai. After finishing my 10th standard, I got a chance to act in the Telugu film Josh and the Malayalam movie Makara Manju.

After acting in these two movies, I continued with my studies. I am now doing my Bachelors in Business Management from an institute in Mumbai.