Kavitha (born: 30 December 1979^[1]), commonly known as Kausalya (in Tamil , Telugu and Kannada film industry) or Nandini (in Malayalam film industry), is an Indian actress and model, who has starred mainly in South Indian cinema. After starting her career in leading roles, she has since gone on to portray supporting roles.^[2]

Nandini was pursuing a modelling career, before she debuted in the 1996 Malayalam film April 19 by Balachandra Menon.^[3][4][5] The following year, she appeared in her first Tamil film Kaalamellam Kadhal Vaazhga (1997) with Murali and went on to star in several successful films in Tamil like Nerukku Ner (1997), Priyamudan (1998), Sollamale (1998), Pooveli (1998), Vaanathaippola (2000) and Kutty (2001).

She went on to appear in many Malayalam films including Ayal Kadha Ezhuthukayanu (1998), Karumadikkuttan (2001), Sundara Purushan (2001), Shivam (2002), Udayam (2004), Vajram (2004), Maanikyan (2004) and Sooryan (2007).

She won Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Tamil for her performance in Pooveli. She mostly acted in saree-clad and conservative roles. By the mid-2000s, she turned character artiste and went on to portray supporting roles in films such as Thirumalai (2003) and Santosh Subramaniam (2008) and ventured into television with the series Manaivi which aired 436 episodes on Sun TV.^[6]

In 2004, she attempted to make a comeback as a lead actress but unfortunately several of her projects became delayed. Films such as Thiagarajan's Police which starred her alongside Prashanth, Manadhil with Karthik, Vendumadi Nee Enakku and Rosappoo Chinna Rosappoo with Sathyaraj, were readied but then stalled in quick succession.^[7][8]

Kausalya returned to the Tamil industry after 6 years with the action film, Poojai (2014).^[9]

Kausalya was born in Bangalore, Karnataka state. Her father Shivashankar Siddalingappa, a Bangalorean, worked as a depot manager at Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation.^[10] Her mother is half Marathi and half Kannada, and was born and brought up in Sri Lanka. Her grandmother was from Sri Lanka.^[11]

Filmfare Award South

• 1998 - Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Tamil - Pooveli^[12]