Nayanthara, the smoldering beauty with sparkling eyes and innocent smile epitomizes the new spirit of South Indian film industry. Nayanthara is a fighter, indefatigable in spirits and mind. Not only is she ravishingly beautiful and photogenic, Nayanthara is talented, professional and has the determination to make it to the top.

Today Nayanthara is bracketed among the top three heroines in south and her rise in the last one year has been phenomenal. No one ever thought that this plain Jane from small town Tiruvalla in the Central Travancore area of Kerala will make it big in the glitzy world of cinema. In fact Diana Kurien was hand picked by veteran director Satyan Anthikkad, rechristened as Nayanthara and cast in "Manasinakkare".

Later she did films with top directors and heroes like Mammootty and Mohanlal and then she made her Tamil debut with "Ayya". But it was the role opposite superstar Rajnikanth in "Chandramukhi" that sky-rocketed her to stardom. Today Nayanthara has an aura around her as she is said to be elusive, inaccessible, does not make public appearances and prefers to do her work silently without being dragged into any controversies. Nayanthara agrees that luck played an important role in her rise to superstardom as she was a part of two blockbusters "Chandramukhi" and "Ghajini" and "Kalvanin Kathali" a hit. In 2006 she had four Tamil releases and was the heroine with maximum number of releases.

In Telugu, Nayan's "Lakshmi" with Venkatesh is the blockbuster of 2006 and her "Boss" with Nagarjuna and "Yogi" with Prabhas are hits. Today, Nayan is a brand by herself and she is one of the few leading ladies in Tamil who commands an opening. Now she wants to be more careful with the films she signs and goes through scripts with a fine comb. Nayan has two films on floors is only focused on her career at the moment and is refusing all the endorsements offers coming her way. The pretty actress says that she does not want to be overexposed.