Meena

16 Sep, 1977 | Chennai

Actress

Biography

Meena is one of the most successful actresses in South Indian cinema. She became a heroine at a very young age of 13 while doing her 8th grade. She acted in some mature roles and that made her a very successful heroine. Meena was born on September 16, 1977, in Chennai. Meena started her career as a child artist in the film Nenjangal in 1982 when she was 5 years old featuring Dr Sivaji Ganesan in the lead role. She later became a heroine in 1990 at the age of 13 in the film Oru Pudhiya Kathai. Before that, she did a short role in the film Karthavyam which was dubbed as Vijayshanthi IPS in the same year. She has acted with Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan and Chiranjeevi and later became a star in her own right. She had hits with films like Muthu, Ejaman, Veera , Avvai Shanmughi and Mutamestri. Following the release of her movies with Rajinikanth in Japan and their commercial success, Meena's popularity rose in Japan. She has acted in almost all the south Indian languages like Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada opposite almost all the leading actors. Meena is also a playback singer, TV judge, and occasional dubbing artiste. She has received numerous accolades, including two Filmfare Awards South, three Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, two Nandi Award for Best Actress. In 1998, she was honoured with the Kalaimamani Award by Government of Tamil Nadu. Meena was a judge for a dancing competition 'Mastana Mastana Season 1' in Sun TV. She also starred as the lead actress in the Sun TV serial Lakshmi.   Family She is an only child to her parents. She did her schooling till 8th std from Vidyodhya Schools in Chennai. Busy with her acting schedules she had to discontinue schooling in the 8th grade, later taking up private coaching and completed her 10th grade. She went on to get her MA in History from the University of Madras through open university system 2006. Meena married a Bangalore-based software engineer Vidyasagar, on 12 July 2009 at Arya Vysya Samaj Kalyana Mandapam. The couple has a daughter Nainika who made her acting debut at the age of 5 in the film Theri (2016). Meena's husband Vidyasagar died on 28, June 2022. Vidyasagar suffered from a severe lung infection and had been under treatment for the past few months.