A differently abled person who has hearing and speech imparity, Abhinaya is an Indian film actress who works in the Tamil and Telugu film industry. She made an impressive debut with Samuthirakani's Naadodigal, winning the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut - South in 2009. The following year she gave another award-winning performance in the Telugu movie Shambo Shiva Shambo. Banking on her success in the Tamil and Telugu movies, she made her Kannada film debut with the movie Hudugaru (2011), and went on to bag the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress - Kannada.

Abhinaya has appeared in movies such as Dammu (2012), Isaac Newton S/O Philipose (2013), Poojal (2014), Shamitabh (2015), and Dhruva (2016). Her 2017 releases include the movie Kuttram 23, Nisabdham and Her 2018 release includes Kichchu (2018).