Shanta Meena (born 23 May 1971), credited as Aishwariyaa Bhaskaran, is an Indian actress who has acted in Tamil,

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 wa ...

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

and Tamil 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'' (1992) and ''Meera'' (1992). She played a double role in ''

Butterflies Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprises t ...

'' (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 ...

'' (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 Sa ...

'' (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 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 wer ...

, 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 severa ...

. After a four-year sabbatical from films as a result of her marriage, childbirth and divorce, Aishwariyaa made a comeback in R. Parthiban'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 Balach ...

'' (2000) and '' Narasimham'' (2000) during the turn of the century.

Personal life

Born as Shanta Meena to Bhaskaran and actress

, 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 Facebook

Aishu'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