Vanitha Krishnachandran

Vanitha was born to Ganeshan and Kamala as the youngest of four children at Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu. Her father is from Manjeri, Kerala, whose paternal ancestors originally hail from Tamil Nadu and her mother is from Tiruchirappalli. She was originally named Sai Vanitha, since her parents were huge devotees of the Indian guru Sathya Sai Baba. She has two elder sisters, Sai Prashanthi and Sai Jayalakshmi and an elder brother, Sai Ram. She had her primary education at RSK Higher Secondary School, Tiruchirappalli. She stopped studies after tenth grade since she became busy with movies by then.^[1]

She married Malayalam actor and singer Krishnachandran on 11 May 1986 with whom she starred in Eenadu, Vanithapolice, Belt Mathai, Deeparadhana and a few other films.^[3]

Vanitha entered the film industry as a 13-year-old and her debut film was Padai Maarinal directed by national award-winning director Durai, in 1979 in which she played a school girl.^[2] She played the lead role in her first Malayalam film, Chandrabimbam and became popular among Malayalis with her roles in Eenadu, Kaikeyi, and Enickum Oru Divasum.^[3] She acted opposite Mammooty and Mohanlal, in 'Vikatakavi and Chakravalam Chuvannappol, respectively. She said "I worked round-the-clock in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films" and "cut down my assignments following my marriage".^[4] The last film she did before marriage was Kalyana Agathigal which was her 100th film.^[4]

In 2001, In Tamil, she made a comeback with a negative role in K. Balachander's television serial Kaalmulaitha Aasai. She has continued to act in serials in Tamil, such as Alaigal, and Kolangal, and Malayalam. She portrayed Jalaja teacher in K. K. Rajeev's serial Amma Manasu ^[3] and has said that it was the real break in her second innings.^[2] She also played the role of a mother in Tamil films like Kana Kandaen, Kalabha Kadhalan and Parijatham and in many Malayalam films.^[2]

• Dharma (1985)

• JB Junction
• Tharapakittu
• Red Carpet
• Manassiloru Mazhavillu