Nalini is an Indian film and television actress who predominantly works in the southern film industry. She is one of those rare actresses who has appeared in movies from 4 different languages in a single year. During the 1980s, she was active in all the four southern languages and has appeared in some of the iconic films of that era. The year 1983 was one of the landmark years in her career. She appeared in the Kannada movie Kaviratna Kalidasa featuring Rajkumar. The film was one of the all-time top grossers and had a theatrical run of 150+ days. The same year, she appeared in celebrated Malayalam director K. G. George's Lekhayude Maranam Oru Flashback. The film ran into a lot of controversies as it was loosely based on the suicide of popular actress Shobha.

Some of her most notable films between 1983-88 are Sangharshana (1983), Intiguttu (1984), Santhosha Kanavukal (1985), Adimakal Udamakal (1986), Bhoomiyile Rajakkanmar (1987), and Vazhiyorakazchakal (1987). After that, she took a sabbatical for almost a decade and then returned to acting in the new millennium. In her second innings, she was more active in Tamil television industry and occasionally appeared in films. She enjoyed success in television too with soap operas like Chinna Papa Periya Papa, All In All Alamelu, and Vani Rani topping the Television Rating Point table. Her recent films are Something Something (2013), Sandamarutham (2015), and Singam 3 (2017). She is also associated with 2018 movie Brand Babu.