SHWETA MENON

SHWETA MENON – Film Actress

Shweta Menon - (23 April 1974) hails from Valanchery in Malappuram district in Kerala, but was born at Chandigarh and currently lives in Mumbai. Her father served in the Indian Air Force while her mother remained a housewife. She studied in Kendriya Vidyalaya East Hill, Kozhikode.

She started her career as an actress in the Malayalam film Anaswaram (1991), directed by Jomon, playing the female lead opposite Mammootty, after which she focused on modeling. She competed in the Miss India contest in 1994 and finished second runner up behind Sushmita Sen and Aishwarya Rai. She became the first Gladrags female super model in 1994 (Kelly Dorjee was the male super model) and then, Miss Asia Pacific runner up in 1994 in Manila Cebu Island, Philippines. She is 5 feet, 6.5 inches tall. She subsequently made her debut in Bollywood and appeared in over 30 films; some of her Bollywood films include, Asoka (2001), Maqbool (2003) and Corporate (2006).

She returned to Malayalam in 2006 with Thantra and then went on to do famous Malayalam films such as Keerthi Chakra (2006) and the award-winning Paradesi. Her performance as Sarojini, a middle-class woman who fights against extreme odds, in the film, Madhya Venal earned her a special mention by Jury Chairman Bahman Ghobadi – famous Iranian director at the International Film Festival of Kerala. In 2010, she won the Kerala State Government's Best Actress for her portrayal of Cheeru, a village woman in the film Paleri Manikyam: Oru Pathirakolapathakathinte Katha directed by Ranjith. She also won Mathrubhumi-Amrita TV Special Jury Award and the Asianet Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for the same film. In 2011, Shweta Menon starred in the remake of Rathinirvedam, essaying the titular character, originally played by Jayabharathi.

Shweta recently approached a local court and the Women's Commission in Kerala after the distributor of her movie Kayam tied up with Musli Power, a sex stimulant drug, to jointly promote the movie. While media profusely supported her with wide coverage, many saw it as a bold attempt by a female actor against what she perceived as gross injustice to her.

Shwetha Menon’s pregnancy and delivery will be coming in the silver screen of film. She and her husband Sreevalsan Menon has said yes to director Blessy to shoot her maternity period as well as her child birth for his upcoming movie. 

Besides working in films, she has anchored several TV, stage and film awards shows. She rose to popularity after presenting the musical programme, Star Wars on Kairali TV in 2008.She won the Asian Television Award for Best Anchor for the same program. In Hindi, she hosted the group band based show, Razzmatazz on Zee TV along with actor Arshad Warsi. The next television show which she did was Dancing Queen in 2008 on Colors and later in 2010, she anchored the Malayalam reality show, Honeymoon Travels on Surya TV. The show became an instant hit for Shwetha's accented Malayalam and her attempts to read from the original script without a formal learning in the language. Recently, she appeared as a contestant with her father in game show, Deal or No Deal on Surya TV. She was the anchor of the family based reality show Veruthe Alla Bharya in Mazhavillu Manorama.

On 18 June 2011, she married Sreevalsan Menon, a native of Thrissur, who works in Mumbai. The ceremony took place at Valanchery, Kerala. She had her first child, a daughter, Sabaina Menon on September 27, 2012, at 5.27 pm at Nanavati Hospital in Mumbai. The delivery was shot live on camera as part of the film 'Kalimannu'.