Annapurna Sriram Stars in Showtime’s New Drama Series ‘Billions’

Indian American actress Annapurna Sriram can currently be seen playing the role of Tara Mohr on Showtime’s new drama series, “Billions.”

By Reena Rathore

Best known for her role as Diversi Tay on WE tv’s supernatural thriller series, “South of Hell,” Indian American actress Annapurna Sriram can currently be seen playing the role of Tara Mohr on Showtime’s new drama series, “Billions.”

The Bachelor of Fine Arts graduate from Rutgers’ Mason Gross School of the Arts was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, and has already displayed her acting skills at some of the top regional theaters in the state.

Among others, her theater credits include a role in Jesse Eisenberg’s critically acclaimed comic play, “The Spoils,” in which she plays actor Kunal Nayyar’s girlfriend.

Sriram, who appeared on “Billy and Billie’s” finale on Direct TV, has also been tapped to play the role of Meera in Hulu’s upcoming TV series, “The Path.”

Showtime describes “Billions” as “a complex drama about power politics in the world of New York high finance, where shrewd, savvy U.S. Attorney Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti) and the brilliant, ambitious hedge fund king Bobby “Axe” Axelrod (Damian Lewis) are on an explosive collision course, with each using all of his considerable smarts, power and influence to outmaneuver the other.”

“Billions’” creators and executive producers are Brian Koppelman and David Levien (“Ocean’s Thirteen”), together with New York Times editor/CNBC anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin.

In “Billions,” which debuted Jan. 17, Sriram plays Mohr, the hard-partying employee of U.S. attorney Rhoades.

Rhoades’ crusading attorney character, by the way, with a perfect track record of insider trading convictions, bears a striking resemblance to Preet Bharara, the Indian American U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and his winning streak.

The two characters of Rhoades and Axelrod appear pretty similar to Bharara and Steven A. Cohen, the infamous hedge-fund trader, but the show’s creators have never admitted as such.

Does it help to know that Giamatti visited the office of Bharara as part of his research and came out pretty impressed with the attorney? “The speed and intensity with which he’s always going—that guy’s brain is always on hyper-overdrive,” Giamatti is quoted as saying in a Wall Street Journal report, adding that he learned about some inner workings of the federal office during those meetings with Bharara.

The film-makers might not agree, but the series definitely appears to draw inspiration for its narratives on the real-life cases pursued by Bharara, including Cohen and Galleon Group’s Raj Rajaratnam, causing much speculation in the media.

Maintaining that the characters are fictitious, Sorkin told Vanity Fair, “To me, Bobby is a unique character who is distinct in many ways. Whether it’s his backstory or his blue-collar upbringing in the business, or the fact that he is a public activist investor, there are many differences from Cohen.”

“What’s funny is that I’ve heard from a lot of people throughout the business who are convinced that Bobby is based on them. Preet met with Paul Giamatti directly, and obviously Preet has been pursuing insider trading for years; but you could say there are also similarities with Giuliani in the 1980s, Mary Jo White, and (Robert M.) Morgenthau. Some people have said that he is (Eliot) Spitzer-like,” he added.

The show airs at 9 p.m. ET on Showtime.

This story was originally posted on India West.