Suhasini Maniratnam

She has acted working predominantly in South Indian Cinemas. She started her career as a make-up artist for several leading actress at that time.

She made her film debut in 1980 with the Tamil movie Nenjathai Killathe. In her first movie itself, she won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actress.[5] She was introduced to Malayalam cinema through Padmarajan's Koodevide (1983), which also featured Mammootty. Her role in the AFI Fest nominated feature film Vanaprastham (1999), which starred Mohanlal, was particularly well received.[6] She acted along with all south Indian top heroes of her time.

Her pairing with Vishnuvardhan is considered one of the best and also unique in South Indian films. The pair has acted together in various blockbuster movies like Bandhana (1984), Suprabhatha (1988), Muthina Haara (1990), Himapatha (1995), Hendithghelthini (1998), Maathaad Maathaadu Mallige (2007) and School Master (2010).

She won the National Film Award for Best Actress for her role in the 1985 Tamil film Sindhu Bhairavi, directed by K. Balachander.[7]

She has worked in several other movies, some of her greatest hits movies names are Swathi (1984), Ezhuthapurangal (1987), Amrutha Varshini (1997), Nuvvu Naaku Nachav (2001), Theerthadanam (2001) and Gabbar Singh (2012) among others.

In 1991, Suhasini directed the anthology mini-series Penn (1991) shown on Madras Doordarshan. The series featured eight standalone episodes examining the lives of South Indian women, and starred several of her contemporaries such as Shobana, Revathi, Raadhika and Amala as protagonists.[8][9][10]

In 1995, Suhasini tried her hands into direction, her first film was Indira. She didn't just direct the movie but also wrote the screenplay for the film. She and husband Mani Ratnam, are both successfully running their production house Madras Talkies, along with G. Srinivasan. However, the film won two Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, winning Santosh Sivan the award for Best Cinematographer as well as a Special Jury Award for the film itself. The film was also shown in film festivals globally in countries including Belarus and Japan.[11] In November 1997, Suhasini directed a short television film titled Swayamvaram featuring Suchitra Krishnamoorthi and Rajiv Menon . The script had been written by Sujatha and commissioned by Revathi and Suresh Menon.[12]

Suhasini directed a segment titled "Coffee, Anyone?" in Amazon Prime's Putham Pudhu Kaalai (2020). Shot during the COVID-19 pandemic, the segment was set against the backdrop of the 21-day COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020 in India, and featured Suhasini in the leading role alongside her cousins Shruti Haasan and Anu Hasan, and her mother Komalam.[13][14]

Suhasini was appointed the Honorary Consul Of the Grand Duchy Of Luxembourg in 2015. She held the post until 2020.[15]

Suhasini founded Naam Foundation in 2010 with the foremost objective to empower single women. She strongly believes that empathising with the single women in the underprivileged segment is only the start of change. To create a powerful impact, Naam Foundation developed a very personalized approach to reach out to these women through mentorship. A panel of women volunteers identified as Naam Thozhigal personally take care of these women and keep in touch with them on a daily basis. They also arrange for expert counsellors to work with the women to address the issues that have affected them. The coaches meet once a month to evaluate their work and to discuss new approaches, new resources and to discuss specific issues that need additional focus. These women coaches bring together vast experience in community work and bring with them empathy and commitment to help empower the Naam Women.