Keerthi Suresh – National award winning south Indian actress of ‘Mahanati’ fame

Keerthi Suresh is a leading south Indian actress, who appears in Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu films. She is the daughter of yesterday actress of 1980s, Menaka and film producer Suresh Kumar. She started her career as a child artist in Malayalam movies in the early 2000s before she graduated to female lead roles. Geethaanjali in 2013 co-starring Mohanlal marked her debut in a lead role. After that she worked in Tamil and Telugu films, with many hit films to her credit. She catapulted to instant glory and fame after portraying yesterday actress Savithri on screen through 2018 film, Mahanati, and also won countless awards including National award for best actress.

Keerthi Suresh was born in Thiruvanathapuram in 1992, into a family with filmy background. Her mother Menaka remained one of the top heroines of Malayalam cinema in the 1980s, while her father Suresh Kumar has produced many hit films. She has one elder sister. Keerthi was brought up in Thiruvananthapuram and Chennai, and she completed her graduation in fashion design. She started her film journey as a child artist in year 2000 and worked in three Malayalam movies produced by her father – Pilots (2000), Achaneyanenikkishtam (2001) and Kuberan (2002). She also appeared in a few TV shows before she quit acting to concentrate on studies. She has been receiving more film offers then.

As a lead actress she joined Malayalam cinema through Priyadarshan’s Geetanjali, where she played a dual role. She played a blind girl in her second release, ‘Ring Master’ and after that she became regular in Tamil and Telugu films. She owns many hit films to her credit. Ring Master, Nenu Sailaja, Mahanati, Remo, Bairavaa, Sarkar, Thaanaa Serndha Koottam, Agnyaathavaasi etc are some of the biggest hits of her acting career in a lead role. She marks her comeback to Malayalam films through Priyadarshan’s Marakkar: Arabikadalinte Simham after a break of 6 years.

Keerthi Suresh – Some interesting and less-known facts

1. After Vidya Balan for The Dirty Picture (2011), she became the second only actress to won National award for best actor/actress for portraying a film actor/actress. No other male actor has won this honour for portraying an actor on screen.

2. Her father has produced many hit films in Malayalam since 1980s – Aaram Thampuran, Poochakkoru Mookkuthi etc to name a few.

3. Her elder sister is a VFX specialist who has previously worked in Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Film Production Company.

4. As a child artist, she played Dileep’s adopted daughter in 2002 Malayalam movie, Kuberan. Years later she played Dileep’s heroine in Ring Master in 2014, and in both these movies, she played an orphan.

5. She belongs to the long list of Malayalam actress who had an average or cold innings beginning in Mollywood, but turned a huge star after moving to other south Indian languages. Her debut film as a heroine ‘Geetanjali’ was a flop, while her second film, ‘Ring Master’ was a hit before she switched to Tamil and Telugu movies.

6. Her debut Tamil film, Idhu Enna Maayam (2015) was only an average, while her Telugu debut film, Nenu Sailaja (2016) was a blockbuster.

7. After Shoba and Priyamani, she became the third Malayalam actress (of Kerala birth) to win National award for Tamil or any other language movies, in best actress category. Actress Vidya Balan also has roots in Palakkad of Kerala, and has won National award, but she entered films through Bollywood.

8. A fashion designer by academics, she seriously thought of a career as a designer before she joined film industry, following footsteps of her mother.

9. Within a short span as a lead actress, she has worked with some of the leading actors of south Indian film industry like Mohanlal, Suriya, Vijay, Pawan Kalyan, Dhanush, Dulquer Salman, Dileep etc, playing the female lead and love interest. She played Mohanlal’s patient in Geetanjali, being the one exception.