Mariyam Shakeela

Mariyam Shakeela is a Maldivian film actress. Career 1992–2007: Early releases After completing her education in MCS and EPS, Shakeela married to comedian Yoosuf Rafeeu who was then a producer and news presenter at Television Maldives. A week after their marriage, Rafeeu requested her to feature in a film for a replacement of an actor who opted out of the film due to personal reasons. At the age of fifteen, she made her screen debut with the film Dhon Sanpa, whose performance was well noted by critics and audiences. In 1992, Shakeela collaborated with Rafeeu for his drama film, Loabi Veveynee Furaana Dheegen followed by another collaboration with Yoosuf Rafeeu for his tragedy drama film Vaudhu (1993) which narrates the separation of a happy couple due to the societal differences. Yoosuf Rafeeu's award-winning film Haqqu was released in 1996, in which Shakeela was featured as Areesha, a faithful wife who suffers from an unhappy marriage. The film revolving around a man who is forced to marry a woman against his will, stars Nisha, Reeko Moosa Manik and Mariyam Shakeela in lead roles. The film received positive reviews from critics. This was followed by the Yoosuf Rafeeu's comedy film Nibu (1996), an unofficial remake of Gulzar's Bollywood comedy film Angoor (1982), which focuses on two pairs of identical twins separated at birth and how their lives go haywire when they meet in adulthood. In 2000, she played the sister of Nasiha, an attractive young woman in a relationship with a married man and a patient suffering from congenital heart disease in Abdul Faththaah's television drama series Dhoapatta. Starring alongside Mohamed Shavin, Jamsheedha Ahmed, Sheela Najeeb and Niuma Mohamed, the series centers on unrequited love and complications of a relationship within and beyond marriage. Two years later, she played the role of Nahidha, a widow who starts an extra-marital affair with a womanizer in Abdul Faththaah's directorial film debut, Himeyn Dhuniye (2000) which received positive reviews from critics. The same year, she starred opposite Reeko Moosa Manik in the Easa Shareef-directed romantic horror film 2000 Vana Ufan Dhuvas (2000), in which she portrays the role of a helpless pregnant wife who discovers her husband having an affair with a younger and much prettier woman.