Ambika (actress) – Wikipedia

Indian film and television actress

Ambika
Born
Years active	1978–1989 (as a leading actress) 1997–present (as a supporting artist)
Spouse(s)	Premkumar ​ ​ (m. 1988; div. 1996)​ after-content-x4 ​ ​ (m. 2000; div. 2002)​
Children	Ramkesav (b.1989) Rishikesh (b.1991)
Parent(s)	Kallara Kunjan Nair (father) Sarasamma (mother)
Family	Radha (sister)
Awards	Kalaimaamani (1984)

Ambika is an Indian actress known for her works predominantly across the entire the southern film industry films and in several teleserials. She also did one English film (an Indo-American one), to date. She was one of the top south Indian heroines for more than a decade from 1978 to 1989. Her younger sister Radha was also an actress. They acted together in a number of south Indian films during the peak of their careers.

Personal life[edit]

Ambika was born to Karunakaran and Sarasamma at Kallara village,(Kallara, Thiruvananthapuram) located in Thiruvananthapuram district.^[1] Her mother Kallara Sarasamma was Mahila Congress leader during 2014.^[2] She has two younger sisters, Radha and Mallika, and two younger brothers, Arjun and Suresh.^{[citation needed]}

Ambika married an NRI, named Premkumar Menon in the year 1988. The couple have two sons and are settled at United States of America. However, they have got divorced in 1996. Later, she got remarried to actor Ravikanth in 2000, which also ended in a divorce in 2002. She is currently settled in Chennai along with her sons.^[3]

Ambika started her career as a child artist and later starred as heroine acting in more than 200 South Indian films. Her career as a heroine started with the Malayalam movie Seetha, which only released very late in her career. But with films such as Neelathaamara (which was made again in 2009) and Lejjavathi, she became a busy actress within a few years not only in Malayalam,^[4] but also in Tamil and Kannada.^{[citation needed]}

K. Bhagyaraj introduced Ambika in his movie Andha 7 Naatkal (1981). Ambika did many films with the leading actors of her time such as Kamal Haasan, Rajinikanth, Vijayakanth, Sathyaraj, Mammootty, Mohanlal, Dileep, Shankar, N. T. Rama Rao, Krishna, Krishnam Raju, Dr. Rajkumar, Ambareesh and Chiranjeevi.^{[citation needed]}

In 1986, she acted in the superhit Malayalam movie Rajavinte Makan, which starred Mohanlal. She also acted with him the following year in another massive hit movie Irupatham Noottandu.

In Tamil, Ambika shot to fame with Kaakki Sattai (1985). At the zenith of her career she costarred with her sister Radha in Kadhal Parisu (1987), where both actresses demonstrated their acting prowess in the roles of two sisters, both with strong but conflicting personalities.^{[citation needed]}

After getting divorced, she returned to India from U.S.A. Later in the year 1997, she started acting again in films Periya Manushan, opposite Sathyaraj and Simhada Mari, Maa Nannaku Pelli with Krishnam Raju. She acted in Vikraman’s project Mariyadhai (2009), in which Vijayakanth played a double role of father and son. Unlike Ambika, her younger sister Radha never returned to movies after marriage and got completely engrossed with supporting her husband’s business in different locations, across all Indian cities.^{[citation needed]}

She has acted in many advertisements. She is a designer too. She has judged many reality shows also. In a film called Medulla Oblangatta (2014) she has done lyrics work too.^{[citation needed]}

Filmography[edit]

In order of languages in which she acted the most to fewest films.

Malayalam[edit]

Tamil[edit]

Kannada[edit]

Telugu[edit]

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1981	Addala Meda	Lakshmi
1981	Viswaroopam	Mallika
1981	Prema Mandiram	Hema
1981	Nayudu Gari Abbai	Madhavi
1981	Bobbili Puli	Jayanthi
1983	Rajkumar	Devi
1984	Dongalu Baboi Dongalu	Seetha
1984	Kurukshetramlo Sita	Janaki
1984	Mukhyamantri	–
1988	August 15 Rathri
1988	Yamudiki Mogudu	Dancer
1997	Maa Nannaki Pelli	Shravani
1998	Kodukulu	–
1998	Rayudu	Tulasi
1999	Neti Gandhi	–
2002	Kondaveeti Simhasanam	–
2002	Police Sisters	Jaya
2005	Slokam	–
2006	Manasu Palike Mouna Raagam	–

Television[edit]

Serials[edit]

Shows[edit]

References[edit]

External links[edit]