Malavika Mohanan

Malavika Mohanan is an Indian actress who predominantly works in the South Indian film industry, especially in Malayalam and Tamil films. She is the daughter of cinematographer K.U. Mohanan. She studied at Wilson College, Mumbai, and has a bachelor's degree in Mass Media. While preparing for higher studies, she accompanied her father during a fairness cream shoot, which starred the Malayalam actor Mammootty. He enquired about Mohanan's interest in acting and went on to offer her a role in the Malayalam film Pattam Pole (2013) opposite his son Dulquer Salmaan. She played the role of Riya in this film. She went on to act in the film Nirnnayakam (2015) as Saral, which earned her great reviews. In 2016, she debuted in Kannada films with Naanu Mattu Varalakshmi (2016) alongside G.K.V. Prithvi. She played the role of the protagonist Varalakshmi which gained her good reviews from the critics. In 2017, she debuted in Hindi films with the film Beyond the Clouds (2017) as Tara. The film was screened at multiple international film festivals before its release. She also appeared in the Malayalam film The Great Father (2017) as Meera the same year. She debuted in the Tamil industry with the film Petta (2019), where she played the role of Poongodi Malik. She hired a Tamil-speaking tutor to help her with her dialogues in this film. And in 2020, Mohanan appeared in the web series Masaba Masaba (2020) on Netflix. In 2021, she appeared in the Tamil film Master (2021) as Charulatha alongside Joseph Vijay. And in 2022, Mohanan was cast in the film Maaran (2022) as Thara opposite Dhanush and appeared in the music video Badshah & Payal Dev: Tauba (2022) sung by Payal Dev and Badshah. She also appeared in Christy (2023), where she played the lead role. In 2019, she was featured on the cover of the SMARTlife magazine. And the same year, she won the Acting Sensation of the Year at the Asiavision Awards.