Nithya Menen

It was at the Film and Television Institute of India in Pune, where she had gone to study cinematography, that B. V. Nandini Reddy persuaded Nithya Menen to act. Before that she had studied journalism at the Manipal Academy of Higher Education. Born in Bengaluru, with her name given as N.S. Nithya, she is an actress and singer working mostly in Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu films, with a few in Kannada. As a child she appeared in the English film Hanuman (1998). Her proper screen debut was the Kannada 7 O' Clock (2006), and Aakasha Gopuram (2008), opposite Mohanlal, gave her her first Malayalam lead. The Telugu romance Ala Modalaindi (2011) was the breakthrough and won her a Nandi Award for Best Actress, and Gunde Jaari Gallanthayyinde (2013) brought the Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Telugu. In Malayalam she played Shahana in Ustad Hotel (2012), and starred in Bangalore Days (2014) and 100 Days of Love (2015). O Kadhal Kanmani (2015), a Tamil romance, made her a leading name in Tamil; 24, Mersal, which won her a Filmfare supporting actress award, and Thalaivan Thalaivii (2025) followed. Thiruchitrambalam (2022) earned her the National Film Award for Best Actress. She made her Hindi debut in Mission Mangal (2019), and her films now number more than 50.