Meena Durairaj, mononymously known as Meena (born on 16 September 1975), is a South Indian film and television actress. Meena debuted as a child artist in Telugu and Tamil films and later starred in films as a lead heroine in all the four southern film industries. She is one of the most established actresses in the South Indian film industry. In addition to acting, Meena is also a top model, singer, dancer, TV host and occasional dubbing artiste.
Contents
1 Personal life
2 Career
2.1 Child artiste
2.2 Lead female roles
2.3 Recent roles
2.4 Television
3 Other work
3.1 Music composing
3.2 Dubbing
4 Filmography
5 Awards and honours
6 References
7 External links
Meena was born in Chennai as the daughter to a Tamil father Durairaj and a Malayali mother Raj Mallika. She was enrolled in Vidyodhya schools in Chennai. Because of her busy acting schedule she had to discontinue schooling in the 8th standard, later taking up private coaching and completing the 10th standard. She went on to get her MA in History from the University of Madras through the open university system in 2006. Meena is a trained Bharathanatyam dancer and speaks six languages: Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam, Kannada and English.
Her mother has played a pivotal role in shaping her career and acted as her guide advisor. Meena has always credited her mother for standing behind her as pillar of strength. When Meena's make-up artist failed to turn up at a remote village in Kakinada during the shooting of Bobbili Simham in 1994, her co-star Roja Selvamani did her hairstyling, beginning their friendship. Other best friends are actress Sanghavi, Sridevi Vijaykumar,Maheswari and Devayani.
Meena married Vidyasagar on July 12, 2009 at Tirumala Venkateswara Temple, Andhra Pradesh. Vidyasagar is a Bangalore-based Software Engineer. Meena gave birth to a daughter Nainika on 1 January 2011 at 11.30am in Chennai
Meena started her career in 1982 as a child artist in the film Nenjangal, starring Dr. Sivaji Ganesan in the lead role, after Ganesan saw her at a birthday party. She says of Ganesan that "I feel extremely proud to have been discovered by the legend". Since then, she has appeared in over 45 films as a child artiste.
She made her debut in Telugu beside the legend Akkineni Nageswara Rao in Seetharamaiah Gari Manavaralu.She made her debut in Tamil in Oru Pudiya Kadhai, and also stars in Telugu and Kannada films. Her first role in Malayalam that gained attention was in Santhwanam. Meena has expressed a wish to do more films in Malayalam. She says of her transition from being a child star to being a heroine that "Memories as a child are really fabulous and I still cherish them. And it is still more special as that phase is over. Now, I am enjoying my stint as a heroine."
She has played the role of leading heroines in Telugu and Tamil films since the early 90s, often playing characters without negativity or grey shades. She has generally avoided glamorous roles though she has acted in a few like Maaman Magal in Tamil opposite Sathyaraj and some movies with Ravichandran in Kannada. In the Kannada remake of Autograph, she reprised Sneha's role of Divya.
She has acted with Nandamuri Balakrishna, Vishnuvardhan, Rajinikanth, Chiranjeevi, Ravichandran, Kamal Haasan, Mammootty, Vijayakanth, Nagarjuna, Venkatesh.Ajith Kumar, Prabhu Deva, Sarathkumar, Mohanlal, Jayaram, Suresh Gopi, Prashanth, Sudeep, Raviteja, eventually herself becoming a star. She had great hits with films like Bobbili Simham, Muthu, Mutamestri, Yejaman, Veera and Avvai Shanmughi . She also made a special appearance with Ilayathalapathy Vijay in Shahjahan and played a role along with Surya in Periyanna. She acted opposite Vikram in Kadhaleesham. Meena has acted both as a child and as an adult opposite Rajnikanth. She has acted with almost all leading actors in South India. Following the release of Muthu in Japan and its commercial success, Meena's popularity rose in Japan.A role in Kadha Parayumbol and in its Tamil and Telugu remakes, Kuselan and Kathanayakudu respectively, were well received by audiences. Meena has expressed regret about Kuselan, after her part was overshadowed.
Meena has said that her own favorite roles were in Bharathi Kannamma and Shock in Tamil, Seetharamaiah Gari Manavaralu in Telugu, Santhwanam in Malayalam and Swathi Muthu in Kannada, "though every film of mine is close to my heart.
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