Welcome to another day of untold stories. Any guesses as to which celebrity we are going to talk about? Let me introduce you to an upcoming artist, Mounika Kalapala, whose journey and inspiration are incomparable.
Mounika was born on May 24, 1998, in Razole, Konaseema district of Andhra Pradesh to Mr. Ramakrishna Kalapala and Mrs. K. Lakshmi. Her father worked in multiple sectors, mother is a well-known chef and a homemaker. She has one older sister, Amala, who is just one year older than her. Her sister worked as an RJ and is now doing event hosting as a freelancer. After her mother, Amala is the strongest person in the family.
There are no families without issues. Every family has some stories to tell. Mounika’s parents have not been together since her childhood. Both the sisters used to meet their father once a year or on occasion. Unfortunately, her father passed away in 2022, which was so heartbreaking.
Education
Since her childhood, she studied in various schools and hostels due to some family issues. She studied her LKG, UKG, and class 1st in the same school in Rallagunta, near Tirupati, while from class 2nd to class 4th she studied at Divine Mercy EM School in Veeravasaram.
Then, she lived with her father for just one year. From 6th grade to now, she lived with her mother and completed her schooling at Kushbow Vidya Niketan High School in Banjara Hills.
Then she moved to her intermediate studies at Sri Chaitanya Junior College in Yousufguda. She completed her graduation degree in 2019 from the Marri Lakshman Reddy Institute of Technology and Management.
Hobbies and Interests
She is so creative and likes to paint and do crafts. She is also a fitness freak and loves to dance. She is also an avid traveler. Moreover, she also has some interest in business and wants to start a small business.
Childhood Tales
She expressed her loneliness. “She spent all her childhood alone; except for pain and loneliness, she has nothing much to say,” she said. Everyone has gone through a phase of life where they feel demotivated, sad, or lonely. But that’s how life works in reality. Human beings have to go through all the phases of life to find happiness. Well, Mounika Kalapala is a strong girl, and she knows how to distract herself and move on. She started networking, meeting new friends, and building contacts. She has been a much-disciplined girl from a very young age. When no one could read English, she used to read the English Bible in a church meeting at school when she was just in the 2nd grade. She was a brilliant student during her school days and used to participate in extracurricular activities. Even though, during her college days, she explored everything she could, she reminisced about her memorable college days; she has mixed memories there, some good and some bad. College life taught her the best lessons of life, and she grew up with those lessons.
During her college days, she participated in every extracurricular activity, such as dance, parent-teacher meeting speeches, technical fest, ramp walks, modeling, and whatnot.
Additionally, during her college years, she participated in one dance competition, Sakshi Arena. She mentioned her best friends; she only has three best friends in college, and after that, too. You know what, she was extremely popular among the college students and faculty. She even got placed as an intern, and it was so hard to manage the work and college at the same time. She used to work night shifts and attend college in the morning. But later, she quit her job because she had a passion for movies.
A Difficult Phase Of Time….
Well, everyone has to face ups and downs at some point in time. To achieve the goal, you have to struggle a lot to reach the peak of the mountain. This is how it is. Like everyone else, she too had faced many problems while getting into the industry. As I mentioned earlier, she also did modeling during her college days.
In addition to this, some casting teams approached her after seeing her portfolio, and she started giving auditions for the movies. On the weekends, she used to do shoots, and after college.
She faced a lot of challenges in the industry from the start. After she passed out of college, she got the movie right away from the director, Ramaraju. She worked on the movie Priyuraalu.
Then she worked on the movie Anukunnavanni Jaragavu Konni (theater) in 2023. This time, she got to work with a bigger team, which was a new experience for her.
However, she also mentioned the bad times when she passed out of college; it was just the start of her career, and the lockdown happened in 2020, which was a bad phase of her career. She never gave up, but she was depressed because she thought that her time was wasted after college. When she just stepped into the industry, it was gone. But presently, this is the time when she is so happy with her career. She did a lot of hard work to reach these heights, and now she is a successful woman. It’s like, you have to go through each phase to find happiness, and when you find it, you will be proud of the journey you had.
As she started her career with lots of struggle and challenge, she had bad experiences and good ones. That’s how people learn it; life is all about experiences, after all. She experienced discouragement, manipulation, fun with her goals and dreams, and whatnot. But she never gave up on her dreams and continued to prove herself.
Role Model and Inspiration
If we talk about her role model, is her mother, and she wants to do something different for her. She expressed that she wants to gift her a home where she can be peaceful without having any financial pressure to pay rent and fees. Her mother is a very strong and hard-working woman. Her family is her inspiration. Additionally, she has a huge crush on Ramcharan, and she wants to work with him desperately.
The Way She Carved Her Path…
Her journey turned into a huge success and popularity. She has craved big success and opportunities for so long, and she continues to do hard work till she reaches her goal. She is a good-hearted person, and she wants to help people whom she promised that she would. She said one thing very right: “Even though we have the talent, we are not given a chance in big films because we did not get a proper success.”
This is something interesting that we haven’t talked about yet. Her sister had a friend on Facebook, Sada Vali, the casting director. So Mounika sent him her portfolio, and he sent it further to the director. One day, Mounika Kalapala received a call from the director, which she couldn’t believe. Sada Vali sent her profile to the second lead; that was the time when she met the director, Ramaraju, for the movie. He offered him the role of the main lead character, Divya. She got famous after this movie and gained lots of fans.
Current Projects
Currently, she just completed her one project under the banner Sayamkalam Sitraalu, which is yet to be titled. Chaitanya Moturi directs the project. She is currently also working in the lead role in the movie Arjunudi Geethopadesam under the banner of the first cut film directed by Satish Gogada.
She also did a cameo role in her first director’s (Rama Raju) film titled “KAVITHA.”
Upcoming Projects
She has one Tamil project that has not started yet. There are lots of more projects in the pipeline.
Mounika’s journey in the field of entertainment reflects her passion, determination, courage, and a strong passion for her dreams. She has faced a lot of challenges during her journey, but she carved her path and stepped into the world of her dreams. Now she continues to work towards her goal of a successful career.