Elisabet Avramidou Granlund, is a Greek Swedish star taking Bollywood by storm.

Since the age of 14, Elisabet dreamed of going to India and becoming a movie star in glamorous Bollywood films.

In September 2012, she decided to go for it and traveled all the way to the other side of the world even though her acting career was picking up in her Swedish hometown.

At the age of seventeen she had joined “Sundbyberg,” a Pardesi dance group which primarily performed Bollywood songs.

She had already starred in the popular Swedish crime film ‘Förbjuden Frukt’ (Forbidden Fruit), and by the age of 20 she had appeared on the iconic ‘Gomorron Sverige’ (Good Morning Sweden).

But that was not what she wanted. At 21 she changed her stage name to Elli Avram and started looking for work in Mumbai. It didn’t take long before she got scouted by an agency and made it in several television commercials.

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Fame came when she entered the Indian reality TV show ‘Bigg Boss’ in 2013 and her Greek Swedish characteristics made audiences fall in love with her.

Born on 29 July, 1990 in Stockholm, to Pontian musician Jannis Avramidis and Swedish actress Maria Granlund, who played in Ingmar Bergman’s Oscar-winning film ‘Fanny and Alexander’ she had both music and acting running through her veins.

 

Even though her Indian language skills were poor at the time and she still can’t get the accent right her talent and looks saw her be cast in several successful productions in India, the likes of ‘Mickey Virus’ (2013), ‘Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon’ (2015), ‘Naam Shabana’ (2017), ‘Poster Boys’ (2017), ‘Naa Peru Surya, Naa Illu India’ (2018), ‘Bazaar’ (2018), ‘Fraud Saiyaan’ (2019), ‘Paris Paris’ (2019), and ‘Butterfly’ (2019).

Elisabet is now known as “The Greek goddess of Bollywood” and is one of the most sought-after celebrities in Mumbai.

She’s now made her childhood dream come true, but Greece never leaves her thoughts. In a recent interview with Proto Thema newspaper, she said she visits her Pontian grandparents every summer back in Prochoma, Thessaloniki and is very proud of her background.

“If I don’t visit Prochoma every summer, the year is not going well for me,” she said.

“My mind is full of pictures of my grandmother and grandfather, who were talking to me about Pontus and its traditions. This is where my heart truly is.”

“I want to marry a Greek man. In fact, I want to marry a Pontian man. This is what I want, and I mean it,” she added.

 

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