Nithya Menen

Nithya Menen is an Indian film actress and playback singer. She has acted in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada language films, as well as an English film.

Early life

Nithya Menen was born in Bengaluru, Karnataka to a Malayali family and studied journalism at the Manipal Institute of Communication. She once said in an interview that she never wished to become an actress but a journalist, as she was "an idealist", but felt journalism was "not what it used to be". She then decided to become a filmmaker as she could express her ideas "better through films", and enrolled for a course in cinematography at the FTII Pune. During the entrance examination, she met Nandini Reddy, who "brainwashed" and convinced her to take up acting. Vamshidhar Reddy would later turn director and sign Nithya for the lead female role in her first project.

Career

Menen appeared first on screen as a child artist when she was ten in the Indian English language film, The Monkey Who Knew Too Much (1998), playing the younger sister to Tabu's character. The 2008 off-beat film Aakasha Gopuram, directed by National Film Award-winning director K. P. Kumaran, marked her debut in a leading role, in which she was paired with Mohanlal. She was in the midst of her 12th class exams when she was offered the role, after Mohanlal had spotted her on the front cover of a tourism magazine, Stark World Kerala. Her performance was well received, with critics writing that she shows "sparkle in her debut venture" and "makes her entry in an impressive role", though the film, based on the Norwegian play The Master Builder, got mixed reviews and was a financial failure. She next made her Kannada debut with the film Josh. She played a supporting role in the film, which received rave reviews, and became a commercial success as well, with her performance garnering her a nomination in the Best Supporting Actress category at the 57th Filmfare Awards South.