Jyothika

Jyothika Saravanan (née Sadanah; born 18 October 1978) is an Indian actress and producer who primarily works in Tamil and Hindi films. She has received several accolades including a National Film Award, five Filmfare Awards South, four Tamil Nadu State Film Awards (a record for Best Actress award for four times) and Kalaimamani Award. Jyothika is regarded among the most prolific actresses in Tamil cinema, and has been ranked among the best South Indian actresses. Jyothika debuted in films with the Hindi film Doli Saja Ke Rakhna (1997), directed by Priyadarshan. She starred in her first Tamil film Vaalee (1999) and her first Telugu film Tagore (2003), opposite Chiranjeevi. She received her first Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut - South for the former film. She was awarded the Filmfare Best Tamil Actress Award for Kushi (2000). A string of successful films followed and Jyothika gained prominence for her performances in Kushi (2000), Dumm Dumm Dumm(2001), Poovellam Un Vasam (2001), Kaakha Kaakha (2004), Perazhagan (2004), Chandramukhi (2005) and Mozhi, (2007), for the latter three she won Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actress. For the movie, Mozhi, she was in the final three for National Film Award for Best Actress for her outstanding performance, however she lost the award to Umashree for the Kannada film Gulabi Talkies. She has a record of holding maximum number of nominations with 16 for Best Tamil Actress at South Filmfare Awards. Jyothika left the industry at the peak of her career after marrying Tamil actor Suriya on 11 September 2006, after being engaged in a relationship for several years, and whom she was paired with in seven films. She made a comeback in the film 36 Vayadhinile (2015) where her performance was given strong reviews and she received Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actress and Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress – South for the movie. By winning her fourth Best Actress Award at Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, she broke the record of winning most Best Actress Title till date with four as her record. After the success of 36 Vayadhinile, she appeared in a series of women centric films like Magalir Mattum (2017), Naachiyaar (2018), Kaatrin Mozhi (2018), Raatchasi (2019), and Ponmagal Vandhal (2020) and also played a lead female role in Mani Ratnam's multi-starrer Chekka Chivantha Vaanam (2018). She made a comeback to Malayalam and Hindi film industry with critically acclaimed performances in Kaathal – The Core (2023) with Mammootty for which she won her fifth Filmfare Awards South in the category Best Actress – Malayalam and Shaitaan (2024) with Ajay Devgn and R. Madhavan. The latter became the fourth highest grossing Indian film of 2024.