Celebrating Nayanthara: The Lady Superstar

Actor Nayanthara is celebrating her birthday today on November 18. The actor is famous for her work in Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam cinema. She is also one of the highest-paid actors of the South Indian film Industry. She has worked in over 65 films in her career spanning for over a decade. The actress has primarily worked in Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu-language films. Let’s learn all about Nayanthara!

Diana Mariam Kurian to Nayanthara!

Nayanthara hails from Thiruvella in Kerala. She was born as Diana Mariam Kurian to Orthodox Malayali Syrian Christian parents in the city of Bangalore.

She studied in Balikamadom Girls High School, Thiruvalla. Nayanthara is a beauty with brains and is a English Literature graduate from Mar Thoma College, Tiruvalla.

As her father was in Indian Air Force, she grew up in different parts of India.

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Lady SuperStar didn’t want to become an Actress!

 Nayanthara never originally wanted to be an actress. She wanted to pursue chartered accountancy. Moreover, she had studied English Literature from Marthoma College. While working as a part-time model, director Sathyan Anthikkad spotted her . She agreed to do ‘just one film’, Manassinakkare. However, the film went on to become a high financial success. Because of that, she continued to receive acting offers.

From Modelling to Acting:

• She was the runner-up in the 2003 Best Model in Kerela.
• In 2003, Malayalam filmmaker Sathyan Anthikad spotted the 19-year-old, college-going Kurian in a jewelry advertisement. On watching the ad, he decided that she was the perfect choice for his directorial Manassinakkare.
• She started her acting career at the age of 19.
• The actor made her Tamil debut in Ayya, 2005 and she played the role of Selvi.
• She then made her Telugu debut in 2007 in a movie called Yogi.
• The actor has only been seen in one Kannada movie called Super and it came out in 2010.
• Her first cameo appearance was in 2007 in the film Sivaji.

  

  Other Facts about Nayanthara:

• In 2011, Nayanthara converted to Hinduism at the Aarya Samaj Temple in Chennai. It was after this purification ceremony that her stage name became her official name.
• In 2017, she participated in pro-Jallikattu protests at Chennai and in 2019, she publicly lauded the Telangana police for the ‘encounter’ killings of four rape suspects in Hyderabad.
• Nayanthara was the only South Indian female actor to have made it to the Forbes India Celebrity 100 2018 list, with her total earning credited at ₹ 15.17 crores.
• She has won 18 awards out of the 30 odd nominations for her at the various festivals and award shows.

Blast from the Past:

The Love Child of Controversy – Silamabarasan aka Simbu aka STR

This one has to be one of the most explosive and worse fallout between celeb couples. It all began during the shooting of ‘Vallavan’ in 2006 when the two co-stars apparently fell for each other. However, this high-profile relationship lasted only a few months. Nevertheless, after the film’s release, the two went their separate ways.

However, that was only the beginning of nasty fallout between the two. According to reports, STR leaked intimate pictures of him kissing Nayanthara as a way to get back at her. This created a huge uproar in media circle. It widened the rift between the two, which took many years to mend.

Despite of everything, this couple reunited on screen for Pandiraj’s Idhu Namma Aaalu in 2016. However, there wasn’t any spark between them anymore!

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Speaking in an interview in 2018, the Vallavan actor talked about the photos. They were taken in Dubai in the newly bought camera and had no idea how it got leaked. The whole scandal affected Simbu as well. He was upset about the situation as a woman’s name was being dragged along with him.

Indian Michael Jackson – Prabhu Deva

Another drama-filled relationship was that of actor-turned-director, Prabhu Dheva, and actress, Nayanthara. Apparently, the two started dating on the sets of ‘Villu’ back in 2009. The catch was Prabhu was already married to Latha and this made things infinitely more complicated for the two.

After she started dating Prabhu Deva in 2008, his wife Latha filed a petition at the court to take action to stop  their live-in-relationship and resettle her family life. And, after her hunger strike warnings and other pressures, Nayantara ended her relationship with Prabhu Deva.

Eventually, he got a divorce, and marriage talks with Nayanthara were in full swing. Conversely, it seems that Prabhu was reluctant to announce a formal date. The actress was jeopardizing her career with this relationship. So she decided to break it off. At least that is what the tabloids report.

Nayanthara faced not only emotional turmoil but also unfair vilification by the society that labeled her a ‘home-wrecker’. The actress, however, persevered with dignified silence, and, by 2013, she was back to delivering blockbusters.

Thangame Unnatha Thedi vandhane worked for Vignesh Shivan!

While working together in Naanum Rowdy Dhaan, she met her current partner director Vignesh Sivan . After going through two tumultuous relationships, Nayanthara seems to have found her soul mate in Vignesh Shivan. Subsequently, their bonding turned into a romantic relationship. Indeed these two stars the most famous power couples in Tamil cinema. They too keep on updating their fans sharing the latest PDAs on social media.

Birthday Wish from her Boyfriend!

To wish his girlfriend, director Vignesh Shivan shared a special post for the actress on her birthday. He shared two pictures of Nayanthara and wrote: “Happy birthday to you, Thangamey.” In the pictures, Nayanthara can be seen dressed in a white t-shirt and a sequin skirt. She is posing at the Santa Monica Pier in Los Angeles.

Besides, sharing a new poster of Netrikann featuring Nayanthara, Vignesh, who has produced the film, wrote: “Happy birthday to you, Thangamey. Be the same inspiring, dedicated, sincere, honest person that you are and keep flying! May God always bless you with only happiness and consistent success! For another year filled with a lot of positivity and amazing moments.”

Netrikann, directed by Milind Rau, is a remake of Korean film Blind and Nayanthara plays the lead role in that.

Nayanthara turned down an offer to work opposite Shah Rukh Khan.

Allegedly, Nayanthara was offered a dance number in Rohit Shetty‘s Chennai Express. Rumor or not, she refused the offer as Prabhu Deva was choreographing the dance number. Without a doubt, Nayanthara is very particular about not doing any raunchy dance numbers.

Nayanthara – Highest Paid South Indian Actress

 As per the industry insiders, Nayanthara is currently drawing a whopping Rs 10 crore per project. That makes her the highest paid south Indian actress ever. If it’s a project starring a really big star, she charges even more.

In a Telugu movie titled Sri Rama Rajyam, Nayanthara donned the role of Sita Devi.  Consequently, this moved Nayanthara so much that she brought about many changes in her daily living style.

Recently, she did the beauty campaign of Kay by Katrina. Anyway, Nayanthara’s latest film, Mookuthi Amman is now streaming on Disney+ Hotstar. Moreover, Nayanthara will be seen next in Netrikann and Annaatthe which is slated to release in 2021.

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