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.
Khushbu Sundar is an Indian politician, actress, film producer and television personality. She is known for her work predominantly in Tamil language films and in a few Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi films. She has appeared in over 185 films, and has won three Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, two Cinema Express Awards, a Kalaimamani Award and a Kerala State Film Award.
Trisha Krishnan is an Indian actress who works predominantly in Tamil and Telugu films. She gained prominence after winning the 1999 Miss Chennai pageant, which marked her entry into Cinema. Often referred to as the "Queen of South India", Trisha has received numerous accolades, including five Filmfare Award South, one Tamil Nadu State Film Award, one Nandi Award and eight SIIMA Awards.
Vijayalakshmi Vadlapati, better known by her stage name Silk Smitha, was an Indian actress and dancer who worked mainly in Tamil and Telugu cinema, in addition to some Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi films. She became one of India's most popular sex symbols of the 1980s and early 1990s, as well as one of the most sought-after erotic actresses in South Indian cinema in the 1980s. Smitha was a key figure in the Malayalam softcore film genre in the late 1980s.
Gopishantha, better known by her stage name Manorama, also called Aachi, was an Indian actress, comedian and playback singer who had appeared in more than 1000 films and 5000 stage performances predomninantely in the Tamil and also in Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, and Sinhala. She was honoured with Kalaimamani award in 1995. In 2002, Government of India awarded Manorama the Padma Shri for her contribution to the arts. She is a recipient of one National Film Award, one Filmfare Award South and seven Tamil Nadu State Film Awards.
Bangalore Saroja Devi is an Indian actress who has acted in Tamil, Kannada, Telugu and Hindi films. She acted in around 200 films over seven decades. She is known by the epithets "Abhinaya Saraswathi" in Kannada and "Kannadathu Paingili" in Tamil. She is one of the most successful actresses in the history of Indian cinema.
Shriya Saran Bhatnagar is an Indian actress who primarily works in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi films. Although Saran aspired to become a dancer, she became an actress and made her film debut with the Telugu film Ishtam (2001). She had her first commercial success with Santosham (2002).
Nayanthara is an Indian actress who works predominantly in Tamil cinema, alongside Telugu and Malayalam cinema. One of the highest-paid actresses in India, Nayanthara was the only South Indian actress to be featured in the Forbes India "Celebrity 100" list of 2018. She has acted in more than 75 films in a career spanning over two decades and has won numerous awards, such as five Filmfare Awards South, one Tamil Nadu State Film Award, a Nandi Award and seven SIIMA Awards.
Radhika Sarathkumar is an Indian actress, film producer, film director and politician who works predominantly in Tamil and Telugu cinema, TV serials and web series as well as Hindi, Malayalam and Kannada films. She is a recipient of a National Film Award, two Nandi Awards, three Tamil Nadu State Film Awards and six Filmfare Award South.
Ambika is an Indian actress known for her work predominantly across the entire southern film industry and in several tele serials. She has also acted in an English film (Indian-American), to date. She was one of the top South Indian heroines for more than a decade from 1976 to 1989. Her younger sister Radha was also an actress. They acted together in a number of South Indian films during the peak of their career. The sisters runs a movie studio called 'ARS Studios', which they converted into a hotel complex in 2013.
Asin Thottumkal, known mononyomusly as Asin, is an Indian former actress who appeared predominantly in Tamil, Hindi and Telugu films. Asin is a recipient of several accolades including a Filmfare Award, two Filmfare Awards South and four SIIMA Awards. The Government of Tamil Nadu honoured her with the state's highest civilian award Kalaimamani, in 2009. Asin is considered as one of the leading South Indian actresses of the 2000s and is referred to as the "Queen of Kollywood".
Mahalakshmi Menon, best known by her stagename Shobha, was an Indian actress best known for her work in Malayalam and Tamil films. At the age of 17, she won the National Film Award for Best Actress for her role in the 1979 Tamil film Pasi. She also received three Kerala State Film Awards: for Best Actress (1978), Best Supporting Actress (1977) and Best Child Artist (1971); and two Filmfare Awards South for Best Actress in Kannada (1978) and Tamil (1979) films. Considered one of the finest talents to have emerged in the Indian film world, her promising career was unexpectedly cut short as she committed suicide in 1980, due to unknown reasons. Her popularity resulted in considerable public scrutiny of the events that led to her death and also various conspiracy theories. The 1983 Malayalam film Lekhayude Maranam Oru Flashback is supposedly based on her life and death.
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.
Avargal is a 1977 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film written and directed by K. Balachander. The film stars Sujatha, Kamal Haasan, Rajinikanth and Ravikumar. A triangular love story, it revolves around a woman who is caught between the man she fell in love with and her former sadistic husband who is supposedly reformed and wants to get back together with her.
Avasara Police 100 is a 1990 Indian Tamil-language action comedy film directed by K. Bhagyaraj, starring himself and M. G. Ramachandran. The film, which incorporates significant footage from Ramachandran's shelved film Anna Nee En Deivam, was a commercial success. It was remade in Hindi as Gopi Kishan in 1994 and in Kannada as Jagath Kiladi in 1998.
Samantha Ruth Prabhu is an Indian actress who works predominantly in Telugu and Tamil films. One of South India's highest-paid actresses, Samantha is the recipient of several accolades, including four Filmfare Awards South, two Nandi Awards and a Tamil Nadu State Film Award.
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.
Mumtaj is a Tamil cinema former actress.
Keerthy Suresh is an Indian actress who appears predominantly in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films. She is a recipient of various accolades including one National Film Award, five SIIMA Awards and two Filmfare Awards South. Keerthy was placed in Forbes India's 30 Under 30 list of 2021.
