Actor and producer · Telugu cinema
Nithya Menen
Nithya Menen movies: 18 Telugu films on file (18 as actor, 1 as producer), 2011–2022. Earliest on file: Ala Modalaindi (2011). Latest release: Bheemla Nayak (25 February 2022).
- Films on file
- 18 (18 as actor, 1 as producer)
- Years on file
- 2011–2022
- Selected films on file
- Geetha Govindam, Rudhramadevi, S/O Satyamurthy
- Record
- Q6435847 on Wikidata
Nithya Menen (born N. S. Nithya) is an Indian actress and singer who works mainly in Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu films and has also acted in a few Kannada films. She has appeared in more than 50 films and is known for strong performances, and her awards include a National Film Award, four Filmfare Awards South and two Nandi Awards. In Telugu cinema she broke through with Ala Modalaindi (2011), which won her the Nandi Award for Best Actress.
Early life
Menen was born in Bangalore, Karnataka, to Sukumar and Nalini; her grandparents had moved to Bangalore from Kerala. She studied at Poorna Prajna School and Mount Carmel College in Bangalore and took a journalism degree from the Manipal Academy of Higher Education. She has said she first wanted to be a pilot, then turned to filmmaking and enrolled at the Film and Television Institute of India in Pune to study cinematography. There she met the director B. V. Nandini Reddy, who persuaded her to act. She speaks Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Hindi and English, and has said she chose the surname “Menen” herself.
Child role and early films
Her first screen appearance was as a child in Hanuman (1998), a French-Indian English-language film in which she played the younger sister of Tabu’s character. She made her adult debut in a supporting role in the Kannada film 7 O’ Clock (2006).
Her first Malayalam lead came in K. P. Kumaran’s Aakasha Gopuram (2008), opposite Mohanlal, who had spotted her on a magazine cover while she was still sitting her class 12 exams. Critics liked her debut although the film failed commercially. The Kannada film Jhossh (2009) was a success and brought her a Filmfare nomination for Best Supporting Actress. In the Malayalam film Apoorvaragam (2010) she played Nancy, a young woman drawn into the plans of two con artists; it was a box-office hit despite mixed reviews.
Telugu breakthrough
The romantic comedy Ala Modalaindi (2011), Menen’s first Telugu film, became a sleeper hit, and critics called hers one of the best Telugu debuts in years. She won the Nandi Award for Best Actress, received a Filmfare nomination and also sang two songs on the soundtrack. Reddy later described her as the discovery of the decade.
That year she also played Bala, a princess, in Santosh Sivan’s historical film Urumi, a role Sivan said he had written for her, and a photojournalist named Vidya in the Tamil–Telugu bilingual 180.
Success in Telugu films
Her Telugu career continued with a series of well-received films:
- Ishq (2012)
- Gunde Jaari Gallanthayyinde (2013), which won her the Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Telugu
- Malli Malli Idi Rani Roju (2015), which earned the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress – Telugu
- Rudhramadevi (2015) and Janatha Garage (2016)
- Awe (2018) and Bheemla Nayak (2022)
Tamil and Malayalam cinema
The Tamil romance O Kadhal Kanmani (2015) established her as a leading actress across South Indian cinema. Her commercially successful films include the Malayalam releases Ustad Hotel (2012), Bangalore Days (2014) and 100 Days of Love (2015), and the Tamil films Kanchana 2 (2015), 24 (2016), Mersal (2017), Thiruchitrambalam (2022) and Thalaivan Thalaivii (2025).
Mersal won her the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress – Tamil. For Thiruchitrambalam she received both the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress – Tamil and the National Film Award for Best Actress.
Hindi debut
Menen made her Hindi debut with the science drama Mission Mangal (2019), which remains her highest-grossing film.
Career on file
Nithya Menen has 18 Telugu films on file at Tollywood Desk, dated from 2011 to 2022: 18 films as actor and one film as producer. The earliest of them is Ala Modalaindi (2011), and the most recent release is Bheemla Nayak (2022). Measured by how many Wikipedia language editions cover them, the best-known titles here are Geetha Govindam (2018), Rudhramadevi (2015) and S/O Satyamurthy (2015). Other recent releases on file are Gamanam (2021), Skylab (2021) and Ninnila Ninnila (2021).
Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Rana Daggubati are the most frequent co-stars, each sharing three films with Nithya Menen, followed by Allu Arjun (2) and Prakash Raj (2). Among directors, B.V. Nandini Reddy cast Nithya Menen most often, in two films. Shresht Movies produced two of them, more than any other banner on file. Across these films the credits on file name 17 different directors, 14 music directors and 55 other credited actors.
Runtime is on file for 15 of them; they average 144 minutes, and the longest is N.T.R: Kathanayukudu at 171 minutes. Six of them have a streaming (OTT) release noted on the site. By decade the list splits into 2010s (14) and 2020s (4).
Figures come from the films on file at Tollywood Desk and change as records are added.