Meena Chitrakar

Place: Chennai

Born: 1976

Biography:

Meena Durairaj, known professionally as Meena, is an Indian actress who predominantly works in South Indian films as well as Hindi cinema. She was born on September 16, 1976, in Chennai, India. Meena made her acting debut in the Tamil film Nenjangal (1992) and has since appeared in over 1000 films across several languages, including Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, and Hindi. She has won two National Film Awards, one Kerala State Film Awards, two Filmfare Awards South, and numerous other awards for her performances in films such as Manichitrathazhu (1993), Mitr, My Friend (2001), and Drishyam (2013). In addition to her acting career, Meena is also a Bharatanatyam dancer who received her training under Chitra Visweswaran and Padma Subrahmanyam. She emerged as an independent performer and choreographer in her twenties and currently runs a dance school, Kalarpana, in Chennai. In 2006, the Government of India honoured her with the Padma Shri for her contributions towards the arts. In 2013, she received the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi Fellowship, also known as Kalarathna, for her contributions to the performing arts. She received honorary doctorates from Vinayaka Mission's Research Foundation in 2018, Dr. MGR Educational and Research Institute in 2019, and Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit in 2022.