Nithya Menen is a very successful and top film actress of South Indian cinema, who owns a bunch of hit films to her credit. She is equally successful in the Malayalam and Tamil film industry, and also owns a few hit Telugu and Kannada films to her credit. Known for naughty and innocent looks, she portrays both a college girl and a mother on screen with ease. Her onscreen chemistry with Dulquer Salman in 100 Days, Ustaad Hotel and OK Kanmani was well appreciated, and these films were box office hits. She also played a cameo role in Dulquer’s starrer Bangalore Days. She has worked with almost all lead actors of South Indian cinema at present, and marks her Bollywood debut with Mission Mangal alongside Akshay Kumar. Nithya Menen won the National Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 2022 Tamil film Thiruchitrambalam. She starred alongside Dhanush in the film.
Nithya Menen – National Award-winning Film Actress
Nithya Menen was born in Bangalore to Malayali parents in 1989. She completed her studies in journalism and wanted to become a journalist. To become an actress was not even in her wildest dreams. But she has appeared as a child artist in a few movies and was first seen as Tabu’s younger sister in the English language film, The Monkey Who Knew Too Much (1998). She later changed her plans to become a filmmaker and enrolled for cinematography course at the FTII Pune. While at the prestigious film institute, she was convinced by Telugu director B. V. Nandini Reddy to take acting. In fact she marked her acting debut in a Malayalam film, Akasha Gopuram while she was on summer vacation after completing her higher secondary course.
Kannada film 7 O’ Clock was her first film in a lead role. Though she appeared in a few more films, acting didn’t fascinate her during her initial days in cinema. But after receiving continuous successes in different language films, she is interested in doing performance oriented films. B. V. Nandini Reddy gave her first break to Tollywood through Ala Modalaindi in 2011 which was a commercial success. She also received the Nandi award for Best Actress for her first Telugu film. Her role in Ishq was also well-received. From then on she worked in all language films. 180 was her first Tamil film.
Though she marked her debut with Malayalam films, she received stardom through Tamil and Telugu films, and later she returned to Malayalam cinema too. Thalsamayam Oru Penkutty, Ustaad Hotel, Bangalore Days, 100 Days of Love etc are some of her best works in Malayalam. 24, Mersal, OK Kanmani, Malini 22 Palayamkottai, Iru Mugan, Kanchana 2 etc are a few works in Tamil. Maniratnam’s directorial venture OK Kanmani earned her a lot of fans irrespective of the language barrier.
Nithya Menen – Some interesting and lesser-known facts
1. Nithya is interested in writing and has already completed two scripts.
2. She is interested in music and plays sitar. She has also done playback singing for a few movies in all four South Indian languages, though she is not a trained singer.
3. Her parents are atheists. But she is a believer in God.
4. She is not interested in travelling. So she stays lazy at home when she has no work commitments.
5. She was paired with Mohanlal for her debut Malayalam film, Akashagopuram.
6. She was seen as a child artist in the Bollywood film “Choti Maa – Ek Anokha Bandhan” in 2001.
7. She won Filmfare Best Actress – Telugu for Gunde Jaari Gallanthayyinde and the Nandi award for her debut Telugu film Ala Modalaindi.
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