Malvika Nair

Malvika Nair was born in Delhi in a Malayali family. Her family soon moved to Kerala and she attended the Toc-H Public School in Vyttila, Kochi,^[1] before returning to New Delhi, where she continued her studies at DAV Sreshtha Vihar.^[2][3] She is a graduate from St Francis College for Women in Begumpet, Hyderabad.^[4] She has a master's degree in philosophy from University of Edinburgh.

While studying, Nair modelled, appearing in various advertisements as well as the Mohan Sithara-directed music video, "Rithukkal". She subsequently began to receive acting offers and eventually entered the film industry at age 13.^[5] In her first few films she had minor supporting or cameo roles; in Ustad Hotel, she made a brief appearance in a song sequence,^[6] while in Puthiya Theerangal and Karmayodha she played the daughter of Nedumudi Venu and Mohanlal's characters, respectively.^[2] Her first major role was as Reena, a house maid who faces an acid attack, in the Malayalam drama film Black Butterfly (2013), a remake of Vazhakku Enn 18/9.^[7]

After watching her performance in Black Butterfly, Balaji Sakthivel, director of its original version, was impressed and recommended aspiring director Raju Murugan to cast her in his romantic drama film Cuckoo (2014).^[2] She portrayed an independent blind girl in the film and prior to the shoot, attended a workshop where she interacted with blind people.^[8] Pairing alongside Dinesh, Malavika portrayed Sudhanthirakodi and won critical acclaim for her portrayal. Behindwoods noted her as "effectuated excellence", while Sify.com's review stated she was "superb" and that she "lives the role".^[9][10] Her performance was subsequently rewarded with the Filmfare Award for Best Actress, Vijay Award for Best Debut Actress^[11] as well as the SICA Award for Best Newcomer and the Vikatan Award for Best Actress.^[12] Prior to Cuckoo, she had a Malayalam release, Pakida, in which she portrayed a fifteen-year-old girl who is sold to a brothel by her own father.^[6]

Nair next appeared in the Telugu film Yevade Subramanyam (2015) alongside Nani, with a critic noting she "shows a lot of spunk and comes up with a matured performance for a newcomer".^[13] Malavika's next release was the romantic drama, Kalyana Vaibhogame (2016), opposite Naga Shaurya. It was directed by B. V. Nandini Reddy and the film was praised and her role was well appreciated. Sify wrote that "Malavika Nair who wowed the audiences with her performance in Yevade Subramanyam shines again as modern independent minded girl. She steals the show in many scenes".^[14]

In 2018, she starred as Alamelu Gemini Ganeshan in the Savitri biopic, Mahanati, directed by Nag Ashwin, which was successful at the box-office ran of 100 days.^[15]

In 2020, she starred in Orey Bujjiga opposite Raj Tarun which was later directly released on Aha due to COVID-19 pandemic.

Key

†	Denotes films that have not yet been released

Films

More information Year, Title ...

Year	Title	Role(s)	Language	Notes	Ref.
2012	Ustad Hotel	Brief appearance in a song sequence	Malayalam		[16]
	Karmayodha	Diya		Credited as Malavya	[17]
	Puthiya Theerangal	Minikkutty		Credited as Malavika Sai	[18]
2013	Black Butterfly	Reena		Credited as Malavika Sai	[19]
2014	Pakida	Kani			[20]
	Cuckoo	Sudhanthirakodi	Tamil		[21]
2015	Yevade Subramanyam	Anandhi	Telugu		[22]
2016	Kalyana Vaibhogame	Divya			[23]
2018	Mahanati	Alamelu Gemini Ganesan			[24]
	Vijetha	Chaithra			[25]
	Taxiwaala	Sisira Bharadwaj			[24]
2019	Ninu Veedani Needanu Nene	Psychology student		Cameo appearance	[26]
2020	Orey Bujjiga	Krishnaveni			[27]
2022	Thank You	Parvati "Paaru"			[28]
2023	Phalana Abbayi Phalana Ammayi	Anupama Kasturi
	Anni Manchi Sakunamule	Aryani
	Devil: The British Secret Agent	Manimekala			[29]
2024	Kalki 2898 AD	Uttara		Cameo appearance
	Krishnam Pranaya Sakhi	Pranaya	Kannada		[30]
2026	Biker	Ananya	Telugu		[31]

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Television

More information Year, Title ...

Year	Title	Role	Network	Notes
2022	Modern Love Hyderabad	Vandana Bharadwaj	Amazon Prime Video	Segment: "What Clown Wrote this Script?"

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