Manjima Mohan is an Indian film actor, who predominantly works in the Tamil and Malayalam films. She made a terrific entry in the film industry as a child artist by winning the Kerala State Film Award for Best Child Actor for her performance in the movie Madhuranombarakattu (2000). However, Manjima took a 15-year break and later returned to acting in 2015.
Early Life
Manjima was born to choreographer Vipin Mohan and dancer Kalamandalam Girija. She completed her schooling and junior college from the Nirmal Bhavan Higher Secondary School, Kerala. Manjima is a B.Sc graduate and has obtained her degree in Mathematics from the Stella Maris College, Tamil Nadu.
Movie Career
In the late 90s, Manjima began working in Malayalam films as a child artist. She made her debut with the movie Kaliyoonjal (1998); portraying the role of the younger version of Shobhna's character. She was next seen in another Malayalam movie, Priyam (2000), which was a remake of the hit Bollywood movie, Hum Hai Rahi Pyar Ke, starring Aamir Khan. However, one of her best performances came with the movie, Madhuranombarakattu (2000). During the time Manjima was also the host of a kids show, Hai Kids. Before taking a long hiatus from acting, Manjima appeared in the movie Thandavam (2002). The movie was her last release of the year as Manjima decided to concentrate on her studies.
More than a decade after her last movie was released, Manjima was offered a role in the movie Oru Vadakkan Selfie (2015), written by Vineeth Sreenivasan, while she was still studying in college. Manjima at that time had no intentions of working in films again, however, she fell in love with the script. Also, the character she was offered was poised, silent and a bookworm; in a way, the character was challenging as she had to become a person who wasn't like her real life persona. So much so that Manjima later revealed that the initial days of her shoot were terrifying. However, Manjima's hard work paid off well as Oru Vadakkan Selfie, directed by G. Prajith, received positive reviews at the box office and went on to become a major hit of 2015.
After the success of her comeback movie, Manjima bagged her first Tamil film, Achcham Enbadhu Madamaiyada. Director Gautham Menon was left impressed by her performance in Oru Vadakkan Selfie and called her for an audition. Achcham Enbadhu Madamaiyada performed well and Manjima received acclaim from audiences and critics for her performance. In 2016, the actress starred in the Telugu romantic thriller Sahasam Swasaga Sagipo and its Tamil version Achcham Yenbadhu Madamaiyada, both of which were directed by Gautham Menon. These films turned out to be box office successes, and Manjima won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut for her performance.
The Kollywood action drama Sathriyan and the action thriller Ippadai Vellum were Manjima's two major releases in 2017, but both the films opened to mixed critical reception. Among her other significant film credits in recent times are the Telugu biographical drama NTR (2019), the Malayalam action thriller Mikhael (2019) and the comedy-drama Zam Zam (2019), which is a remake of the 2013 Bollywood movie Queen.