Nithya Menen

Nithya Menen (born NS Nithya) is an Indian actress and singer who works primarily in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada films. Menen is noted for her strong portrayals, and is a recipient of several accolades including a National Film Award, four Filmfare Awards South, two South Indian International Movie Awards and two Nandi Awards. Menen started her career as a child artist, in the French-Indian English film, Hanuman (1998), playing the younger sister to Tabu's character. She made her screen debut with the Kannada film 7 O' Clock (2006). The 2011 romance film Ala Modalaindi, proved to be her breakthrough and won her Nandi Award for Best Actress. Menen received the Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Telugu for her portrayal in Gunde Jaari Gallanthayyinde (2013). Further success in Telugu films came with Ishq (2012), Malli Malli Idi Rani Roju (2015), which earned her Filmfare Critics Best Actress – Telugu and her second Nandi Award, Rudhramadevi (2015), Janatha Garage (2016) and Bheemla Nayak (2022). Menen established herself as a leading South Indian actress with the Tamil romantic film O Kadhal Kanmani (2015), winning the SIIMA Critics Award for Best Actress – Tamil. She went onto appear in such commercially successful films — the Malayalam films Ustad Hotel (2012), Bangalore Days (2014) and 100 Days of Love (2015), and the Tamil films Kanchana 2 (2015), 24 (2016), Mersal (2017), which won her the Filmfare Best Supporting Actress – Tamil and Thiruchitrambalam (2022). For the lattermost, Menen received the National Film Award for Best Actress and Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress – Tamil. She ventured into Hindi films with the science drama Mission Mangal (2019), which remains her highest-grossing release. Menen appeared as a Judge for Telugu Indian Idol in 2022. She has since been part of web series, Breathe: Into the Shadows (2020-2022), Modern Love Hyderabad (2022) and Kumari Srimathi (2023).