Meena Durairaj, known professionally as Meena, is an Indian actress who predominantly works in South Indian films as well as Hindi cinema. She is a trained Bharatanatyam dancer. Meena has acted in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, and Hindi films She is one of the most sought after actresses in the South Indian film industry. In addition to acting, Meena is also a playback singer, TV judge, and occasional dubbing artist. She has received numerous accolades, including two Filmfare Awards South, three Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, two Nandi Award for Best Actress and Cinema Express Awards. In 1998, she was honoured with the Kalaimamani Award by Government of Tamil Nadu.
Ramya Krishnan, also credited as Ramya Krishna, is an Indian actress predominantly known for her work in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi films.
Jaya Prada Nahata is an Indian actress and politician known for her works majorly in Telugu cinema and Hindi cinema as well as in Tamil films in late '70s, '80s and early '90s. Jayaprada is the recipient of three Filmfare Awards South and has starred in many Telugu and Hindi films along with several Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Bengali and Marathi films. She left the film industry at the peak of her career, as she joined the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in 1994 and entered politics. She was a Member of Parliament (MP) from Rampur, Uttar Pradesh from 2004 to 2014.
Saritha is an Indian actress who has acted in more than 150 films and provided voice for many actress for more than 200 films in Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu languages. She was one of the popular and critically acclaimed lead actresses during the 1980s. She also appeared in a television serial, Selvi. She is also credited as a dubbing artist. She has dubbed her voice for Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Telugu movies for actresses like Nagma, Vijayashanti, Tabu, Sushmita Sen, Ramya Krishnan and Soundarya in 1990s.
Padmapriya Janakiraman, better known mononymously as Padmapriya, is an Indian actress who mainly appears in Malayalam films. Padmapriya made her acting debut in the Telugu film Seenu Vasanthi Lakshmi in 2004.
Geetha is an Indian actress who appears in Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Tamil and Hindi films. She debuted in the Tamil film Bairavi. Since then she has acted in over 200 films in all major South Indian languages, and in a few Hindi films. She also appears in South Indian television serials. Geetha has won two Filmfare Awards South and Kerala State Film Awards, Karnataka State Film Awards each.
Kavitha Manoranjini, known professionally as Urvashi, is an Indian actress, dubbing artist, television host, screenwriter and film producer known for her work in the Southern film industry, predominantly in Malayalam and Tamil films, and also in Kannada and Telugu films. In a career spanning over four decades, she has won one National Film Award, six Kerala State Film Awards, two Tamil Nadu State Film Awards and three Filmfare Award South. Known for her distinct style of acting, she is widely regarded as one of the greatest actress in south indian cinema.
The Filmfare Awards South are annual awards that honour artistic and technical excellence in the Telugu cinema, Tamil cinema, Malayalam cinema and Kannada cinema. They are presented by Filmfare magazine of The Times Group. When it was introduced in 1954, the Filmfare Awards initially only recognized achievements in the Hindi cinema. In 1964 the awards were extended to Telugu, Tamil, Bengali and Marathi languages. Malayalam cinema was included in the awards in 1967 and Kannada cinema followed in 1970.
Julie is a 1975 Indian Hindi-language romantic drama film directed by K. S. Sethumadhavan and written by Chakrapani. The film stars Lakshmi in the title role. It also stars Vikram Makandar, Nadira, Rita Bhaduri, Om Prakash, Utpal Dutt and Sridevi, in her first significant Hindi role. The film was a critical and commercial success. It is a remake of a Malayalam film Chattakari (1974), which also starred Lakshmi as the lead making her Malayalam and Hindi film debuts in both versions respectively. She would star in yet another remake, the Telugu film Miss Julie Prema Katha (1975). She did not act in the Kannada remake, Julie, released in 2006, which had Ramya in the title role as Julie and Dino Morea as the leading man. She also declined the role of Julie's mother in the Malayalam remake titled Chattakari (2012), stating that she wanted the audiences to remember her as the young and beautiful Julie; the title role went to Shamna Kasim. Actress Urvashi portrayed the role of Julie in its Tamil remake Oh Maane Maane (1984).
Chattakkari is a 1974 Indian Malayalam-language film directed by K. S. Sethumadhavan and produced by M. O. Joseph, starring Lakshmi, Mohan Sharma, Adoor Bhasi and Sukumari. The film was written by Thoppil Bhasi based on Pamman's famous novel of the same name.
Neravanda Chetticha Prema is an Indian actress known for her work predominantly in Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, and a few Tamil language films. She ruled Kannada industry in the 90s and early 2000s and she has appeared in many commercially successful feature films. She was a leading Kannada actress at the turn of the century and has received the Karnataka State Film Award and Filmfare Best Actress awards for her performances in Kannada films. She has featured in Om and Yajamana, which are the two major blockbuster and highest-grossing films of their time in Kannada cinema. After an eight-year hiatus, she returned to films with Upendra Matte Baa in 2017.
Priya Mani Raj, known professionally as Priyamani, is an Indian actress and television personality who predominantly works in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi and Kannada films. She is the recipient of several awards, including a National Film Award, three Filmfare Awards South and a Tamil Nadu State Film Award.
Amala Akkineni is an Indian actress, Bharatanatyam dancer, and activist. She has predominantly worked in Tamil films, in addition to Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam, and Kannada-language films. She was a leading actress in the Tamil film industry from 1986 to 1992 and has appeared in many blockbusters in Tamil and other languages. She has won two Filmfare Awards South, namely Best Actress – Malayalam for the 1991 film Ulladakkam and Best Supporting Actress – Telugu for the 2012 film Life Is Beautiful. Amala is the co-founder of Blue Cross of Hyderabad, a non-government organisation (NGO) in Hyderabad, India, which works towards the welfare of animals and preservation of animal rights in India.
Sankaramanchi Janaki, widely known as Sowcar Janaki, is an Indian actress known for her works in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada language films. In a career spanning over seven decades Janaki has appeared in close to over 390 films. She also performed on stage in over 300 shows and was a radio artist during her earlier years. She is the recipient of two Nandi Awards, a Kalaimamani and India's fourth-highest civilian award Padma Shri. Her younger sister, Krishna Kumari, was also a noted actress.
Sujatha was an Indian actress who performed and starred in a variety of unique characters in Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu films- in addition to few in Kannada and Hindi languages as well. The actress was best known for restraint and subtlety in portrayal of varied emotions. After starring in numerous Malayalam films in her mother-tongue, Sujatha later got introduced to the Tamil film industry by veteran director K. Balachander and producer P.R. Govindarajan as a protagonist in her first Tamil film, Aval Oru Thodar Kathai (1974). It was a critically acclaimed film and launched the actress's first commecrical breakthrough in her acting career. Whereas, her first Telugu picture happened to be a Telugu/Tamil bilingual titled as Guppedu Manasu (1979) in Telugu and was simultaneously shot as Nool Veli in Tamil of the same year. She died of a cardiac arrest on 6 April 2011 in Chennai.
Suchitra Ramadurai, known mononymously as Suchitra, is an Indian radio jockey, popular playback singer, songwriter, composer, voice artist, dubbing artist and film actress. She has sung in multiple languages including Tamil, Malayalam, and Telugu.
Saranya Ponvannan is an Indian actress who predominantly appears in Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam and a few Kannada language films. She also acted in one Hindi movie Chup: Revenge of the Artist in 2022. Saranya made her acting debut in a lead role in Mani Ratnam's Nayakan (1987) and went on to play lead roles from 1987 to 1996. Following an eight-year sabbatical, she returned to films in 2003 as a character actor roles. In her career spanning around over 25 years she had won a number of accolades including one National Film Award, two Tamil Nadu State Film Awards and five Filmfare Award South.
Chippy Renjith is an Indian actress and producer who works in the South Indian film industry, primarily in Malayalam and Kannada films. She has won several accolades including the Filmfare Award for Best Kannada Actress & Karnataka State Film Award for Best Actress for her performance in Janumada Jodi (1996).
Vijayalakshmi is an Indian actress who has predominantly appeared in Kannada and Tamil films. In 1997, she won Filmfare Award for Best Actress in Kannada for her performance in her debut Kannada film Nagamandala as Rani.
Tulasi is an Indian actress who primarily works in Telugu, Kannada, and Tamil cinema. Later she appeared in lead actress and supporting actress roles. She has acted in over 300 films in Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, and Bhojpuri languages. She won two Nandi Awards and one Filmfare Award.
