Kausalya (born Kavitha on 29 December 1979), also known as Nandini, is an Indian film actress and model, who has starred mainly in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada films. After starting her career as a lead heroine, she has since gone on to portray supporting roles.
Kausalaya was born to Shivasankaran, an officer at Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation and a Tamil mother Poornima, a house wife, on 30 December 1979. She has a brother Shanmugha who is a business man. She remains unmarried. She is a disciple of Nithyananda.
Kausalya was pursuing a modelling career, before she debuted in the 1996 Malayalam film April 19 by Balachandra Menon. The following year, she appeared in her first Tamil film Kaalamellam Kadhal Vaazhga (1997) with Murali and went on to star in several successful films in Tamil like Nerukku Ner (1997), Priyamudan (1998), Sollamale (1998), Pooveli (1998) and Vaanathaippola (2000). In Malayalam, her best performance is regarded to be in Ayal Kadha Ezhuthukayanu (1998) opposite Mohanlal and including Karumadikuttan (2001) with Kalabhavan Mani.
