Shanta Meena (born 23 May 1971), credited as Aishwariyaa Bhaskaran, is an Indian actress who has acted in
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
**Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nativ ...
,
Malayalam
Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...
,
Kannada
Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...
and
Telugu
Telugu may refer to:
* Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India
*Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India
* Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language
** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode
S ...
movies and along with several
Malayalam
Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...
and
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
**Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nativ ...
television soap operas. She is the daughter of actress
Lakshmi
Lakshmi (; , sometimes spelled Laxmi, ), also known as Shri (, ), is one of the principal goddesses in Hinduism. She is the goddess of wealth, fortune, power, beauty, fertility and prosperity, and associated with ''Maya'' ("Illusion"). Alo ...
.
Career
Aishwariyaa's first film was ''Oliyampukal'' (1991), followed by ''Mamagaru'' (1991), ''
Rasukutty
''Rasukutty'' is a 1992 Indian Tamil-language comedy drama film, written and directed by K. Bhagyaraj and produced by Meena Panchu Arunachalam. The film stars Bhagyaraj and Aishwarya, with Manorama and Kalyan Kumar in supporting roles. It was ...
'' (1992) and ''Meera'' (1992). She played a double role in ''
Butterflies
Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...
'' (1993) and also in ''
Gardish
''Gardish'' () is a 1993 Indian Hindi-language action crime film written and directed by Priyadarshan, starring Jackie Shroff, Aishwarya and Dimple Kapadia. It is a remake of the 1989 Malayalam film '' Kireedam''. The film won two Filmfare Awa ...
'' (1993), which was a remake of the Malayalam movie ''
Kireedam''. Early in her career, she turned down opportunity to work with
Mani Ratnam
Gopala Ratnam Subramaniam (born 2 June 1956), known professionally as Mani Ratnam, is an Indian film director, screenwriter, and producer who predominantly works in Tamil cinema and few Hindi, Telugu and Kannada films. Ratnam has won six Nat ...
in ''
Thiruda Thiruda
''Thiruda Thiruda'' () is a 1993 Indian Tamil-language black comedy caper film directed by Mani Ratnam written along with Ram Gopal Varma. The film stars Prashanth, Anand, Anu Aggarwal and Heera Rajagopal while S. P. Balasubrahmanyam and Salim ...
'' (1993).
Following her marriage in 1994, Aishwariyaa quit the film industry and chose to prioritise bringing up a family. However her marriage fell apart and she became addicted to taking drugs as a result of her husband's addiction, which made it difficult for her to re-enter the film industry after her divorce in 1996. After undergoing a rehabilitation process, she chose to continue her education in computer science and joined to work with the
NIIT
NIIT Limited ''(National Institute of Information Technology)'' is an Indian Multinational corporation, multinational Training and development, skills and talent development corporation headquartered in Gurgaon, India. The company was set u ...
in 1997 and prioritised her work as a software engineer.
She then accepted an offer to be a part of a television show produced by
Suresh Chandra Menon
Suresh Chandra Menon is an Indian actor, cinematographer and film director of Tamil and Malayalam films.
Personal life
After meeting the popular actress Revathi during a film shoot of Marumagal Tamil movie (1986), they fell in love and were ...
, after being convinced by her friend, actress
Revathi
Asha Kelunni Nair (born 8 July 1966), better known by her stage name Revathi, is an Indian actress and director, known for her works predominantly in Tamil & Malayalam cinema - in addition to Telugu, Hindi & Kannada films.
She has won several ...
. After a four-year sabbatical from films as a result of her marriage, childbirth and divorce, Aishwariyaa made a comeback in
R. Parthiban
R. Parthiban (born 14 October 1958) is an Indian actor and filmmaker who works mainly in Tamil cinema. He has directed 15 films, produced 13 films and acted in more than 70 films. He started his career as assistant director for K. Bhagyaraj in ...
's ''
Housefull'' (1999) portraying an inspector-in-charge of the bomb disposal squad. She continued to portray supporting roles in films such as ''
Suyamvaram
''Suyamvaram'' () is a 1999 Indian Tamil-language comedy drama film starring an ensemble cast from actors in the Tamil film industry and shot by a large technical team from the industry. The film was planned by Giridharilal Nagpal who produced a ...
'' (1999), ''
Sathyameva Jayathe
''Sathyameva Jayathe'' () is a 2000 Indian Malayalam-language action thriller film directed by Viji Thampi. This film's dialogue was written by G A Lal. The film stars Suresh Gopi, Aishwarya, Hemanth Ravan, Siddique, Rajan P Dev and Balachan ...
'' (2000) and ''
Narasimham'' (2000) during the turn of the century.
Personal life
Born as Shanta Meena to Bhaskaran and actress
Lakshmi
Lakshmi (; , sometimes spelled Laxmi, ), also known as Shri (, ), is one of the principal goddesses in Hinduism. She is the goddess of wealth, fortune, power, beauty, fertility and prosperity, and associated with ''Maya'' ("Illusion"). Alo ...
, she has a step sister from her mother's third marriage with
Sivachandran
Narayanan, better known by his stage name Sivachandran, is an Indian actor, director, and writer who was active in Tamil cinema mostly in the 1980s.
Career
Sivachandran was originally offered to act in ''Kizhakke Pogum Rail'' (1978), but decli ...
.
She was married to Tanveer Ahmed in 1994 and they were divorced in 1996. The couple have a daughter born in 1995.
Filmography
Television
Serials
Shows
Web Series
References
External links
*
Aishu's Kitchen on FacebookAishu's Kitchen – Portal
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aishwarya (Actress)
Actresses in Tamil cinema
20th-century Indian actresses
21st-century Indian actresses
Actresses in Telugu cinema
Indian film actresses
Living people
Actresses in Malayalam cinema
Actresses from Chennai
Actresses in Hindi cinema
Actresses in Kannada cinema
Indian television actresses
Actresses in Tamil television
Actresses in Malayalam television
Actresses in Telugu television
1971 births