Meghna Naidu (born 19 September 1980) is an Indian actress who has starred primarily in

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

films. She has also appeared in Telugu,

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi and Bengali films.

Biography

Naidu's first major appearance was in the music video for UMI10's "Kaliyon Ka Chaman" (2002), an official remix of

Lata Mangeshkar Lata Mangeshkar (; born Hema Mangeshkar; 28 September 1929 – 6 February 2022) was an Indian playback singer and occasional music composer. She is considered to be one of the greatest and most influential singers of the Indian subcontinent. He ...

's 1981 song " Thoda Resham Lagta Hai" (in turn, the 2002 song " Addictive" by Truth Hurts was inspired by the remix). She was also featured in Saru Maini's video "Dil De Diya Tha (Sutta Mix)" before starting to work in

Indian films The cinema of India, consisting of motion pictures made by the Indian film industry, has had a large effect on world cinema since the second half of the 20th century. Indian cinema is made up of various film industries, each focused on pr ...

Early life

Naidu was born on 19 September 1980 in

Vijayawada Vijayawada ( ), formerly known by its colonial name Bezawada, is the second largest city and a major commercial hub in the Andhra Pradesh state of India. The city forms an integral part of the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region and is situated on th ...

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...

, India. Her father Ethiraj works for

Air India Air India is the flag carrier of India with its main hub at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, and secondary hubs at Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai, alo ...

and was a

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

coach and her mother Purnima, was a school teacher. She has one younger sister, Sona. She told that she requested her mother to quit her job and accompany her to shooting locations, after her sister who used to travel with her got a job abroad. She grew up in

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

, and considers herself "more of a Mumbaiite". She studied at

Bhavan's College, Andheri Bhavan's College is a Higher education in India, college located near Azad Nagar Metro Station in Andheri, Andheri West, a neighborhood in western Mumbai, India. It was established in 1946, a year before India gained independence from the Bri ...

, Mumbai, and graduated with a B.Com degree. She trained in classical

bharatanatyam ''Bharatanatyam'' is a Indian classical dance form that came from Tamil Nadu, India. It is a classical dance form recognized by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, and expresses South Indian religious themes and spiritual ideas of Hinduism and Jainism.< ...

for seven years. She stated that she also was coaching tennis in the US for four years.

Career

At the age of 18, she met a model co-ordinator at the wedding of her cousin in

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

, who called her for a screen test for a feature film. She secured a role in the Telugu film ''Prema Sakshi'' (1999), following which she appeared in one more Telugu and two Kannada films. She then appeared in UMI10's music video " Kaliyon Ka Chaman", directed by Radhika Rao and Vinay Sapru, which she says happened by accident. She was accompanying her friend to the audition for the video, when she was approached by the team. She was asked to send in her photographs and within few days, she was selected for the video. "Kaliyon Ka Chaman" became a grand success and gained her recognition. She subsequently went on to do many stage performances in and outside of India. She made her

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". The in ...

debut with the B-grade film '' Hawas'' (2004), which dealt with

extramarital affair An affair is a relationship typically between two people, one or both of whom are either married or in a long-term monogamous or emotionally-exclusive relationship with someone else. The affair can be solely sexual, solely physical or solely em ...

. It was followed by lead roles in '' Classic Dance of Love'' (2005), which featured her as a dancer, and '' Rain: The Terror Within...'' (2005), in which she played a blind author. In ''Mashooka'', she played a character with negative shades. In her latter career, she mostly made special appearances in

item numbers In Cinema of India, Indian cinema, an item number or special song is a musical number inserted into a film that may or may not have any relevance to the plot. The term is commonly used within Indian films (Cinema of West Bengal, Bengali, Hindi ci ...

in South Indian films. She also participated in the television shows '' Fear Factor - Khatron Ke Khiladi'' and '' Dancing Queen''. She played the role of Benazir in the TV series, '' Jodha Akbar''.

Personal life

Naidu started a relationship with tennis player Luis Miguel Reis in 2011; they married on 12 December 2016. They live in Dubai, and she travels to India for work.

Filmography

;Television shows * '' Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi 1'' on

Colors TV Colors TV is an Indian general entertainment pay television channel owned by JioStar, a joint venture between Viacom18 and Disney India. Its programming consists of Soap opera, family dramas, Comedy, comedies, fantasy shows, youth-oriented Rea ...

* '' Dancing Queen'' on

* '' Jodha Akbar'' on

Zee TV ZEE TV also known as Z TV is an Indian Hindi language general entertainment pay television channel owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. It was launched on 1 October 1992 as the oldest privately owned television channel in India. History ...

* '' MTV Fanaah'' on

MTV India MTV is an Indian pay television channel specialising in music, reality and youth culture programming. It was launched in 1996 as the Indian version of the original American network and is owned by JioStar, under a license agreement with Par ...

* ''

Adaalat Adalat or Adaalat may refer to: * Adalah (Islam), the word for justice in Islam * Adalat, a brand name for the heart drug Nifedipine * Adalat (1958 film), ''Adalat'' (1958 film), a Bollywood drama * Adalat (1976 film), ''Adalat'' (1976 film), a Bo ...

'' on

Sony Entertainment Television Sony Entertainment Television (abbreviated as SET) is an Indian Hindi-language general entertainment pay television channel that was launched in 1995 and is owned by Culver Max Entertainment, a division of Sony Pictures. History This chann ...

* ''

Sasural Simar Ka ''Sasural Simar Ka'' () is an Indian Hindi-language television soap opera produced by Rashmi Sharma Telefilms that aired from 25 April 2011 to 2 March 2018 on Colors TV. It is the second longest-running Indian television series on Colors TV, a ...

'' on

Colors Color (or colour in Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is the visual perception based on the electromagnetic spectrum. Though color is not an inherent property of matter, color perception is related to an object's light absorpt ...

* '' Maharakshak Aryan '' on

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Naidu, Meghna Living people Actresses in Hindi cinema Actresses in Tamil cinema Actresses in Telugu cinema Actresses in Malayalam cinema Actresses in Bengali cinema Actresses in Kannada cinema Actresses in Telugu television Indian television actresses Indian film actresses 21st-century Indian actresses 1982 births Actresses from Vijayawada Musicians from Vijayawada Singers from Andhra Pradesh Contestants on Indian game shows Participants in Indian reality television series