Malavika Avinash

Malavika Avinash
Malavika Avinash in 1998 Kannada serial Mayamruga
Spokesperson of Bharatiya Janata Party of Karnataka
Incumbent
Assumed office February 2014
President	Nalin Kumar Kateel
Personal details
Born	Madras, Tamil Nadu, India
Political party	Bharatiya Janata Party (2013–present)
Spouse	Avinash ​ (m. 2001)​
Children	1
Alma mater	Bangalore University
Occupation	Actress politician

Malavika Avinash is an Indian spokesperson, actress, television personality and politician who is the current State spokesperson of Bharatiya Janata Party of Karnataka. She is known for her work in Kannada and Tamil films. She hosted Baduku Jataka Bandi, a television show that aired on Zee Kannada.^{[citation needed]} She is a part of the ensemble cast in the highest grossing Kannada movie - K.G.F: Chapter 2.

Early life

Malavika was born in a Tamil family to N. Ganesan from Thanjavur. Her father was a banker and writer, and her mother, Savithri, a vocalist and dancer. She was initiated into classical arts under the tutelage of Padmashree Leela Samson in Bharatanatyam and Pandit Partho Das on the sitar. G. V. Iyer spotted her at a dance performance as Krishna and cast her as Krishna in his Krishnavataar. She then played a lead role as a princess in Prema Karanth's Panorama children's film Nakkala Rajakumari.

She completed her Bachelor of Law at Bangalore University and was awarded 3rd rank.^[1]

She married actor Avinash in 2001.^[2] They have a son named Gaalav.

Career

Malavika's stint as a child artist was followed by her entry into cinema as the heroine in award-winning Malayalam films for Lenin Rajendran and popular Kannada films. Television however, turned out to be the medium that adopted her. Her earlier television series were for Girish Karnad and Ashutosh Gowariker in Hindi, Ashok Naidu in Kannada and Dinesh Baboo in Malayalam. Her performance in Mayamruga provided her iconic status among Kannada television viewers. Mayamruga's success caught the eye of K. Balachander, who then chose to usher her into Tamil cinema world with Anni, where Malavika played the protagonist Anni.

Avinash (left), Malavika Avinash (right) in 1998 Kannada serial Mayamruga

Malavika's Tamil films and Serials include Raji Or Raja Rajeshwari Role in "Raja Rajeshwari" Sun TV Serial 90'S Kids Favourite (Saregama India Ltd) Company Episodes Directors are Selva Kumar and Selva Pandi and K. Balachander's Nilavai Pidippom where she portrayed a middle-class working woman, Pudhuyugam, Pralayam in "Comedy Colony" again under her mentor Balachander. She played Madurai Thilaka in Arasi and Muththazhagi in Chellamey. She played key roles in Tamil films.^[3]

Another milestone was her portrayal of Nanjamma, the protagonist in Girish Kasaravalli's film of S. L. Bhyrappa's celebrated novel, Gruha Banga. In her decade of television acting, Malavika played roles in Tamil, Kannada and Hindi productions including cross-over film Cyanide, in which Malavika's portrayal of Shubha won her critical acclaim. ^{[citation needed]} Apart from Manvantara for T. N. Seetharam, Malavika swayed the Kannada audiences with her cult figure like character of Madhavi Patel, IPS, in his Muktha.^{[citation needed]}

Agni, a talk show that Malavika hosted on E-TV Kannada was followed by Baduku Jataka Bandi. In the latter, Malavika deals with the problems of individuals, thereby providing an Alternate Dispute Resolution forum for resolving family issues. She also discusses social issues.^[4] She was a housemate in Bigg Boss Kannada Season 4.

In 2017, she played a judge in Ilayathalapathy Vijay's movie Bairavaa. She also starred in the current highest grossing Kannada film K.G.F: Chapter 1 as well as the highly acclaimed Tamil movie Kaithi, all 3 which have grossed more than 100 crores at the box office and the sequel of KGF, K.G.F: Chapter 2 which is India's 3rd highest-grossing film of all time grossing more than 1000 crore at the box office.

Journalism

Malavika participated in and won many international moot courts as a student, served as editor of her college journal, joined Madhyam, a development communications organization, served as assistant-editors of Madhyam journal, a legal column for the Times of India and UDAYAVANI for two years, her "Malavika Pakkam" column in Kumudam, a Tamil weekly, an Agony aunt column for Kumudam and more recently, 'Malavika order', a weekly column in Vijaya Karnataka. Malavika served as head of programming at Zee Kannada.

Dance

Malavika's association with Bharatanatyam commenced at age five when her mother introduced it to her. She trained under M. R. Krishnamurthy of Kalakshetra, followed by advanced tutelage under Padmashri Leela Samson in Delhi. She was a recipient of the CCERT (a unit of the Culture Ministry) scholarship for Bharatanatyam.^{[citation needed]} She pursued dance along with her dancer sister, an alumnus of Kalakshetra, Ranjani Ganesan Ramesh. As a duo they performed at cultural centres in India and abroad, including Hampi festival, Pattadakkal festival, Khujrajo festival, Chidambaram Natyanjali and Uttara Chidambaram. Together, they organise an annual dance festival called Arudhra at Bangalore.

Malavika served as a judge on TV dance shows and hosted Takadhimithaa, a game show dedicated to Bharatanatyam on JayaTV.

Malavika Avinash entered politics campaigning for BJP leader Sushma Swaraj in Bellary. She is a member of the BJP's Mahila Morcha.^[5] She joined Bharatiya Janata Party in September 2013^[6] and was appointed one of its co-spokespersons in February 2014.^[7]

Controversy

Sanitary pad controversy

Goods and Service Tax applied on sanitary napkins when items like bangles and sindhoor were exempted from the new tax system by the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party has come under criticism from women and men.^[8] In July 2017, Malavika defended the BJP and said that sanitary pads are not required as Multi-national corporations have been dumping sanitary pads in India since it was rejected by developed countries, Cloth is hygienic in contrast to sanitary pads.^[9] The defense of Malavika on the decision of her party to enforce GST on sanitary pads provoked a lot of backlash from people.^[10]

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Language	Notes
1988	Krishnaavataar		Kannada
1989	Nakkala Rajakumari	Rajakumari	Kannada
1992	Daivathinte Vikrithikal	Elsie	Malayalam
1993	Janam	Reshma	Malayalam
1995	Kalyanothsava	Rashmi	Kannada
	Samara	Sandhya	Kannada
	Ravitheja	Teja	Kannada
2003	Jay Jay	Meena	Tamil
2005	Aaru	Nirmala	Tamil
2006	Cyanide	Shubha	Kannada Tamil
	Dishyum	Malar	Tamil
	Aathi	Ramachandra's wife	Tamil
	Kalvanin Kadhali	Haritha's sister-in-law	Tamil
2008	Jayamkondaan	Chandrika	Tamil
2010	Irandu Mugam	Thilakavathy	Tamil
	Huli	Bharathi	Kannada
2011	Vanthaan Vendraan	Arjun and Ramana's mother	Tamil
2012	Munjane	Manu's mother	Kannada
	Dashamukha	Madhuri	Kannada
	Drama	Gayathri	Kannada
	Krantiveera Sangolli Rayanna	Goddess	Kannada
	Yaare Koogadali	Kumara's stepmother	Kannada
2013	Myna	Revathi	Kannada
	Karodpathi		Kannada
2014	Kalyanamasthu		Kannada
	Adyaksha		Kannada
	Mr. and Mrs. Ramachari	Sudha	Kannada
2015	Ring Road		Kannada
2016	Mukunda Murari	TV interviewer	Kannada
	Shivalinga	Police commissioner	Kannada
2017	Bairavaa	Judge	Tamil
2018	Huccha 2		Kannada
	K.G.F: Chapter 1	Deepa Hegde	Kannada
	David		Kannada
2019	Boomerang	Siva's mother	Tamil
	Kaithi	Nalini	Tamil
2021	Rudra Thandavam	Judge	Tamil
	Enemy	Arundhati Mohan	Tamil
	Sakath	Judge	Kannada
2022	K.G.F: Chapter 2	Deepa Hegde	Kannada
	Captain	Major Kavitha Nair	Tamil

Television career

Serials

Year	Title	Role	Language	Channel	Note(s)
1995	Chinna Chinna Aasai-Uravu	Pooja	Tamil	Sun TV
1998–2000	Mayamruga	Malavika	Kannada	DD Chandana
2001	Micro Thodar Macro Sinthanaigal - Ayirathil Oruvanum Nooril Oruthiyum	Kamali	Tamil	Raj TV
2001–2002	Manvantara	Gargi	Kannada	ETV Kannada
2001–2003	Grihabhanga	Nanjamma
	Anni	Angayarkkani	Tamil	Jaya TV
2004–2005	Chidhambara Ragasiyam	Thulasi		Sun TV	replaced by Devadarshini
2004–2006	Raja Rajeshwari	Raja Rajeshwari			replaced by Abitha
2005–2006	Nilavai Pidippom	Thenmozhi		Raj TV
2008–2009	Comedy Colony	Chellamma		Jaya TV
	Arasi	Madurai Thilakavathy		Sun TV	replaced by Sudha Chandran
2008–2010	Mukta	SP Madhavi Patel	Kannada	ETV Kannada	[11]
2009–2013	Chellamey	Muthazhagi	Tamil	Sun TV
2014	Mahaparva	Judge	Kannada	ETV Kannada
2019	Magalu Janaki	Sheela Bhushan		Colors Kannada	[12]
2021	Kaatrukkenna Veli	Saradha	Tamil	Star Vijay	Replaced by Jyothi Rai
	Paaru	Mahalakshmi	Kannada	Zee Kannada	Special Appearance
2022–2024	Kannedhirey Thondrinal	Rudra	Tamil	Kalaignar TV
2022	Mathe Mayamruga	Malavika	Kannada	Siri Kannada

Shows

Year	Title	Role	Language	Channel	Note(s)
2010–2011	Baduku Jataka Bandi	Host	Kannada	Zee Kannada
2012	Kaiyil Oru Kodi - Are You Ready?	Contestant	Tamil	Sun TV
2015	Aradirali Belaku	Host	Kannada	Udaya TV
2016–2017	Bigg Boss Kannada	Herself		Colors Kannada	As contestant; season 4[13]
2022	Jodi No 1	Judge		Zee Kannada
	Comedy Khiladigalu and Jodi No 1 Mahasangama
2023–2024	Jodi No 1 Season 2

References

1. "BJP's versatile spokespersons". The Hindu. 7 February 2014. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
2. "From reel love to real love". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 5 November 2012. Retrieved 21 June 2011.
3. "I am born to be CM". Vijay Times. Archived from the original on 6 November 2013. Retrieved 28 March 2013.
4. "Malavika back to TV". Softlayer.com. Archived from the original on 15 April 2013. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
5. "Malavika – Another Glam Doll to Join Janata Dal (S)". Daiji World. Archived from the original on 22 October 2013. Retrieved 28 March 2013.
6. "Actor Malavika joins BJP". The Hindu. 28 September 2013. Archived from the original on 19 October 2013. Retrieved 18 October 2013.
7. "Karnataka BJP gets 4 women co-spokespersons". The Hindu. 6 February 2014. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 8 February 2014.
8. Nandakumar, Prathibha (10 July 2017). "Progress and support, not tax". Bangalore Mirror. Archived from the original on 21 July 2020. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
9. "GST: Politics behind sanitary napkins and PERIODS". Asianet News Network Pvt Ltd. Archived from the original on 22 July 2020. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
10. "Malavika's defence over GST on sanitary pads irks netizens". NewsKarnataka. 9 July 2017. Archived from the original on 22 July 2020. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
11. "Small-screen "Anni" thinks big". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 6 June 2011. Retrieved 21 June 2011.
12. "Malavika Avinash is back on television as advocate". The Times of India. 12 August 2019. Archived from the original on 15 August 2019. Retrieved 20 August 2019.
13. K., Bhumika (24 December 2016). "Who is watching who?". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 28 December 2016. Retrieved 31 December 2018.

External links

• Malavika Avinash at IMDb