Having acted in and sang for Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada movies, Nithya Menen is considered a versatile actor in the South Indian movie industry. She is best remembered for her performance in Gunde Jaari Gallanthayyinde, which won her the Filmfare Award for Best Actor - Telugu in the year 2014.
EARLY LIFE
Born and brought up in a Malayali family in Bengaluru, Karnataka on 8th of April, 1988, Nithya studied journalism at the Manipal Institute of Communication. Upon completing her studies, she realized that the field of journalism wasnt what it used to be and decided to take up filmmaking as a career in order to express her ideas better. She then enrolled for a course at the FTII, Pune for a course in cinematography. However, she met Nandini Reddy during her entrance examination, who convinced her to take up acting instead of direction.
ACTING CAREER
Much before making her mainstream cinema debut in 2006, Nithya was seen on the big screen cast alongside Tabu in the Indian language movie Hanuman in 1998. She played the role of Tabus younger sister in the movie. After her stint as a child actor, Nithya made her debut as a lead actor and Kannada debut with Santosh Rai Patajhes movie 7 OClock. Soon after her Kannada debut, she made her Malayalam debut with National Film Award-winning director K. P. Kumarans off-beat 2008 release Aakasha Gopuram, and was cast opposite Malayalam superstar Mohanlal. Although the movie was a commercial failure and opened to mainly negative reviews, Nithyas performance was well-received. The following year, she was seen in Kannada movie Josh, where she had a supporting role for which she won a nomination at the Filmfare Awards South for the Best Supporting Actress.
The actor then made her Telugu debut with Nandini Reddys romantic comedy Ala Modalaindi, co-starring Nani and Sneha Ullal, in 2011. Despite very less promotions and publicity, the movie went on to become a success. Nithyas performance not only won critical acclaim but also won her the Nandi Award for Best Actress and a Filmfare nomination for the Best Actress. Apart from acting in the movie, the actor also sang two songs for the soundtrack of the movie. She then played the character of a Chirakkal princess called Bala in Santosh Sivans historical fiction Urumi and was cast opposite Prabhudeva. She appeared in other movies like Violin, Veppam, and Makaramanju in the same year.
She then received the CineMAA Award for Best Actress (Jury) for her performance in the Telugu romance Ishq in the year 2012, and also won the same nomination at the SIIMA Awards. Nithya was seen in the Malayalam adaptation of Shakespeares Hamlet titled Karmayogi. In her next Kannada movie Aidondla Aidu, she not only acted but also sang and choreographed a song for the movie. She was seen making a cameo in 2014s highest grossing Malayalam movie Bangalore Days, which stars Nazriya Nazim, Nivin Pauly, Dulquer Salmaan, Fahadh Faasil, Isha Talwar, and Parvathy Menon. Nithya later played the role of a physically challenged girl in the Kannada film Mynaa, which went to become a blockbuster hit and also won the Filmfare Award for Best Film - Kannada in 2014. She won her first Filmfare nomination for a Tamil film for her performance in the Mani Ratnam-directed OK Kanmani, co-starring Dulquer Salmaan.
Her projects for 2016 include Kotigobba 2, Janatha Garage, and Iru Mugan.