9 movies that track Nayanthara’s rise in the Tamil film industry

In January 2005, the Tamil film industry said hello to a sweet-faced girl as she danced around leading man Sarathkumar in Ayya. Even today, many think of ‘Oru Vaartha Kaeka Oruvarusham’ when there’s a conversation about the actress who, in a little more than a decade, became the ‘lady superstar’ of Tamil cinema.

Though she walked the beaten track in her initial days, working in a clutch of star vehicles where the heroine was a necessary accessory, Nayanthara learnt to carve her own path. “For my solo films, I decide everything,” she told us in her October 2019 Vogue cover interview. “Sometimes, directors do come up with sub-plots revolving around husbands or boyfriends. I ask whether it is necessary.” Her career has seen more ups and downs than most of her contemporaries, but she’s always recouped and bounced back. The biggest thing that has worked for Nayanthara has been her ability to showcase a new facet of hers every few years. So, if in 2007, she stunned all with her stylish makeover in Billa, the next year she managed a traditional character in Yaaradi Nee Mohini. Later in 2008, everyone could see how hard Nayanthara had been working out with Sathyam.

After a brief hiatus due to personal setbacks, she was back on the big screen in 2013 with Atlee’s Raja Rani, a story of two heartbroken people who get married and discover love. But Nayanthara’s career can be clearly classified as before and after Maya. She shouldered the 2015 horror film alone, proving she could bring in the moolah as well. Almost every film since—Naanum Rowdy Dhaan (2015), Aramm (2017), Kolamaavu Kokila (2018), Imaikaa Nodigal (2018), Viswasam (2019), Airaa (2019), Bigil (2019) and Darbar (2020)—has banked on this ability of hers to choose a happy mix of commercial fare and women-centric films. So, while she stands as guarantee for a good film, she also manages to get the much-coveted early morning premiere shows, a privilege hitherto reserved for her male counterparts.

It helps that she is very well dressed on screen (even if it doesn’t do justice to the character sometimes), maintains a low profile off of it, and stays away from social media. The only glimpse people get of Nayanthara off the camera is when her fiancé, filmmaker-lyricist, Vignesh Shivan posts pictures of them together, or she attends the rare awards show.

Here, we list down the Tamil movies that showcase Nayanthara’s rise in the industry, and where you can see them online

1. Ayya (2005)

The actress plays Selvi in this film, a class 12 student who falls in love with her father’s friend’s son, played by Sarathkumar. Her charming screen presence and her dance performances in two hit songs—‘Oru Vaarthai Kaeka Oruvarusham’ and ‘Aththiri Baththiri’—quickly made her a name to watch out for.

Streaming on YouTube

2. Chandramukhi (2005)

This was Nayanthara’s first collaboration with Rajinikanth, where she plays Durga who eventually falls in love with his character, Saravanan. This film showed the actress could hold her own against big stars, and she has proved the same time and again over the years.

Streaming on Hotstar

3. **Maya **(2015)

This 2015 film by Ashwin Saravanan—who later went on to make Game Over (2019) with Taapsee Pannu and Vinodhini Vaidynathan—proved that Nayanthara could shoulder an entire movie on her shoulders, and make it click at the box office too. Though it fell in the horror genre, the film’s storyline touched hearts too with its thread of maternal love.

Streaming on SunNXT

4. Naanum Rowdy Dhaan (2015)

This Vignesh Shivan-directorial that released months after Maya only sealed Nayanthara’s place at the top. In this film, she plays Kadhambari, a hearing-impaired girl who is initially searching for her father, and later seeking revenge for his murder. Nayanthara’s performance was noteworthy, and Anirudh Ravichander’s great songs added to the charm. The film also marked the beginning of a personal relationship between Vignesh and Nayanthara.

Streaming on SunNXT

5. Aramm (2017)

While the initial selling point for the film was that Nayanthara plays a collector, and will be seen in just two saris through the film, what struck a chord was her character Madhivadhini’s earnestness and intent to do good. She’s the kind of person who steps back once the work is done. For instance, after a child trapped in a well is rescued thanks to her efforts, she does not join the celebrations; she breaks down in a mix of relief and hidden fear instead.

Streaming on SunNXT

6. Kolamaavu Kokila (2018)

Even if the audiences couldn’t relate to Kokila as an impoverished girl, Nayanthara definitely bought her spunk in this film, which is all about a cache of drugs and some people desperately trying to get their hands off it and earn some money. To see someone who looks like a deer caught in the headlights take on big thugs and pit gang members against each other, and then quietly go back to a life of selling rangoli powder, is a little hard to buy, but Nayanthara sold it well.

Streaming on Zee5

7. Viswasam (2019)

Nayanthara had a substantial role in Siva’s Ajith-starrer Viswasam. In fact, she was the pivot around which the film revolved. Her character, Dr Niranjana, treads the thin line between arrogance and self-respect, and the actress was on point in her portrayal. In between, she managed to popularise the saris she wore in the film too.

Streaming on Prime Video

8. Bigil (2019)

Bigil was a bit of a letdown with respect to Nayanthara’s character of psychotherapist Angel, never really striking a chord or having anything substantial to do. The movie was also a lesson, hopefully, that writers need to come up with better lines and character arcs for actresses who are stars in their own right.

Streaming on Prime Video

9. Darbar (2020)

Darbar saw Nayanthara play Lily, the love interest of Rajinikanth’s cop Aadhithya Arunachalam. It’s one of those films where she does more for the film than it does for her.

For now, all hopes are pinned on her next, Mookuthi Amman. Traditionally, amman (goddess) films in Tamil have drawn women and children in droves—which also happen to be Nayanthara’s existing audience. The film will also be a departure from what she’s done so far, and could potentially set her on the course of the next stage of her career.

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