Suhasini Maniratnam (born 15 August 1961) known mononymously as Suhasini, is an Indian actress, director, producer and writer in the Tamil film industry. She has worked as an actress in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. She made her cinematic debut with the 1980, Tamil film. Nenjathai Killathe. Suhasini then won National Film Award for Best Actress for her performance in Sindhu Bhairavi (1985). Suhasini has won 4 Filmfare Awards, 2 Kerala State Awards, 2 Tamilnadu State Awards and 2 Nandi Awards. Early life Her paternal cousins Anu Hasan, Shruti Haasan and Akshara Haasan have also since become actresses. Suhasini attended the Municipal Elementary School in Paramakudi, before moving to Madras aged 12 to live with her grandmother and uncle Kamal Haasan. Film career As an actress She made her film debut in 1980 with the Tamil movie Nenjathai Killathe. In her first movie itself, she won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actress. She was introduced to Malayalam cinema through Padmarajan's Koodevide (1983), which also featured Mammootty. She appeared in the AFI Fest nominated feature film Vanaprastham (1999), which starred Mohanlal. She has acted with Vishnuvardhan in Bandhana (1984), Suprabhatha (1988), Muthina Haara (1990), Himapatha (1995), Hendithghelthini (1998), Maathaad Maathaadu Mallige (2007) and School Master (2010). She won the National Film Award for Best Actress for her role in the 1985 Tamil film Sindhu Bhairavi, directed by K. Balachander. She has worked in Swathi (1984), Manivathoorile Aayiram Sivarathrikal Ezhuthapurangal (1987), Amrutha Varshini (1997), Nuvvu Naaku Nachav (2001), Theerthadanam (2001) and Gabbar Singh (2012) among others. As a director In 1991, Suhasini directed the anthology mini-series Penn (1991) shown on Madras Doordarshan. The series featured eight standalone episodes examining the lives of South Indian women, and starred several of her contemporaries such as Shobana, Revathi, Raadhika and Amala as protagonists. Her film Indira was shown in film festivals globally in countries including Belarus and Japan. In November 1997, Suhasini directed a short television film titled Swayamvaram featuring Suchitra Krishnamoorthi and Rajiv Menon . The script had been written by Sujatha and commissioned by Revathi and Suresh Menon. Suhasini directed a segment titled "Coffee, Anyone?" in Amazon Prime's Putham Pudhu Kaalai (2020). Shot during the COVID-19 pandemic, the segment was set against the backdrop of the 21-day COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020 in India, and featured Suhasini in the leading role alongside her cousins Shruti Haasan and Anu Hasan,