Nithya Menen To NDTV On Redefining Beauty In Cinema: "I'm Here To Perform, Not Fit A Mould"
For Nithya Menen, performance has always mattered more than appearance. In an industry that places intense pressure on actresses to look a certain way to be lit a certain way, styled a certain way, to fit into a narrow, aspirational box. She has steadily rejected those expectations.
"Yes, there is pressure," she told NDTV in an exclusive interview. "But it's very important for me to be someone who represents something beyond the superficial. If people feel an emotional or soulful impact. Something that hits the heart and not just the eye. That's what matters to me."
What makes her stand out is the consistency with which she has made that choice over the years.
"My subject isn't about looking a certain way. There are plenty of people who do that beautifully. But I'm here to perform, not fit a mould. Real human beings come in all forms. We don't all look the same, and we shouldn't have to," she said.
Her latest Tamil release, Thalaivan Thalaivi, is a testament to that conviction. Set in the temple town of Madurai, the film stars Vijay Sethupathi and Nithya Menen as a married couple whose relationship begins with love and quiet chemistry but spirals into separation and emotional chaos.
Sethupathi plays the owner of a humble eatery, while Menen plays his wife, a woman torn between affection and frustration. To inhabit that role, Nithya leaned fully into the physical and emotional demands of the part, from her body language to the way she draped her saree. Her look in the film is not polished or glamorised, and that's intentional.
"We make realistic films, and it's important to look real," she explained. "For example, I didn't have a makeup artist on this film. We made sure things weren't too polished. The aim was to keep everything grounded and honest."
It's this clarity about what matters to her as an actor that makes Nithya Menen's performances feel so lived-in, so unaffected. In Thalaivan Thalaivi, as in much of her work, she disappears into the world of her character not despite the lack of glamour, but because of it.
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