On Her 48th Birthday, A Look At Actress Meena's Legacy In South And Bollywood

On September 16, Meena Durairaj, aka, Meena celebrated her 48th birthday. She is a prominent face in the South film industry as well as Hindi cinema. She has worked in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi films and is considered to be one of the bankable actresses. Her impeccable acting skills have won the hearts of the audience. Her contributions to her art have won her various accolades like Filmfare Awards South, Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, Nandi Award for Best Actress and Cinema Express Awards. She was also honoured with the Kalaimamani Award by the Government of Tamil Nadu. However, there are a few things that are little known to everyone.

Actress Meena has starred in many Kannada films and a few of her notable works were with Kiccha Sudeep which are, My Autograph and Swathi Muthu. On the occasion of her birthday, let’s take a look at a few of the lesser-known facts about her.

Meena married Vidyasagar, a Bengaluru-based software engineer in 2009 at the Arya Vaishya Samaj Kalyana Mandapa in Bengaluru. In 2022, her husband died due to lung ailments. The couple have a daughter, Nainika.

Did you know that Nainika has also followed her mother’s footsteps and acted in a few films? She was just five when she marked her acting debut in the Tamil film Theri starring Thalapathy Vijay, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Amy Jackson and Radhika Sarathkumar. The film was helmed by Atlee.

Another important fact is that she is also a playback singer. She has been a part of two pop albums called 16 Vayathinile and Kadhalism, which she began recording in 2001 with actor Vikram. She has even been a dubbing artist for Padmapriya Janakiraman in Cheran’s movie Pokkisham.

She was last seen in the Kannada film, Hendtheer Darbar in 2010, opposite Ramesh Aravind. Since then, she has not acted in any Kannada films. A few of her notable works in Kannada films are Sri Manjunatha, Simhadriya Simha, Game for Love and Mahasadhvi Mallamma. She was last seen in the Malayalam film Aanandhapuram Diaries. She has Rowdy Baby in the pipeline.