Dhanya Balakrishna

Dhanya Balakrishna is an Indian actress who appears in Telugu and Tamil films. After making her debut in A. R. Murugadoss's 7aum Arivu (2011), in a supporting role,^[1] she appeared in ventures including Gautham Vasudev Menon's Neethaane En Ponvasantham (2012), Atlee's Raja Rani (2013) and Srikanth Addala's Seethamma Vaakitlo Sirimalle Chettu (2013). Dhanya made her debut as female lead in Telugu with Chinni Chinni Aasa (2013).

Dhanya Balakrishna
Born	(1991-08-06) 6 August 1991 (age 33)
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2011–present
Spouse	Balaji Mohan ​ (m. 2022)​

Personal life

Dhanya Balakrishna was born in Bangalore, Karnataka.^[2] She was educated at MES. She married Tamil filmmaker and actor Balaji Mohan in January 2022 after falling in love while filming As I'm Suffering From Kadhal (2017).^[3][4]

Career

Dhanya began her acting career with performances in theatre, before playing a supporting role in A. R. Murugadoss's 7aum Arivu (2011) alongside Suriya and Shruti Haasan.^[5] She was next seen in two bilingual projects, portraying supporting roles in Kadhalil Sodhappuvadhu Yeppadi (2012) and then Gautham Vasudev Menon's Neethaane En Ponvasantham (2012).^[5][6]

Dhanya, portrayed supporting role in the 2013 Telugu film Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu as a girl who proposes to the character played by Mahesh Babu; while in Raja Rani (2013), she was seen as Nivitha, a friend of Nayantara's character. Her first leading role was in the Telugu film Chinni Chinni Aasa (2013), released in November 2013, while other projects, Amrutham Chandamamalo and Second Hand, were released thereafter. She has been part of nearly 40 movies and 10 web series. She is able to speak Kannada, Tamil and Telugu fluently.

Filmography

Films

List of Dhanya Balakrishna film credits

Year	Title	Role	Language	Notes
2011	7aum Arivu	Malathi	Tamil	Debut film
2012	Kadhalil Sodhappuvadhu Yeppadi	Rashmi		Bilingual film; Telugu debut
	Love Failure		Telugu
	Neethaane En Ponvasantham	Nithya's friend	Tamil	Bilingual film
	Yeto Vellipoyindhi Manasu		Telugu
2013	Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu	girl who proposes to Chinnodu
	Raja Rani	Nivitha	Tamil
	Chinni Chinni Aasa	Nisha	Telugu	Debut as lead actress
	Second Hand	Sahasra / Deepu / Swecha		Also singer for "Jo Tera Hi Ho Mera Hai"
2014	Amrutham Chandamamalo	Sanjeevani
	Run Raja Run	Soundarya / Bangaram		Cameo Appearance
	Chinnadana Nee Kosam	Nandhini's friend
2015	Raju Gari Gadhi	Bala Tripura Sundari
	Bhale Manchi Roju	Maya D'Souza
2016	Nenu Sailaja	Keerti
	Thanu Vachhenanta
	Savitri	Gayathri
2017	Veedevadu	Dr.Gouthami Ramakrishna		Bilingual film
	Yaar Ivan		Tamil
	Jaya Janaki Nayaka	Sweety's friend	Telugu
2019	Love Action Drama	Priya	Malayalam	Malayalam debut
	Puzhikkadakan	Anna
	Hulchul	Swathi	Telugu
	Sarvajanikarige Suvarnavakasha	Jahnavi	Kannada	Kannada debut[7]
	Software Sudheer	Swathi	Telugu
2020	Anukunnadi Okati Ayinadi Okati	Dhanya
2022	Carbon	Swapna	Tamil
	Jagamemaya	Chitra	Telugu	25th film
	Nodi Swamy Ivanu Irode Heege	Gajalakshmi	Kannada
2023	Undenama	Preethi
2024	RAM (Rapid Action Mission)	Dr. Jahnavi	Telugu	[8]
	Lal Salaam	Ammani	Tamil	Guest appearance [9]
	Sharma & Ambani	Sitara	Telugu	Direct release on ETV Win
2025	Hathya	Sudha Rao
	Baapu	Varalakshmi
	Sikandar	Maid	Hindi

Television

List of Dhanya Balakrishna television credits

Year	Title	Role	Network	Language	Notes
2016	5th South Indian International Movie Awards	Host	YouTube	Tamil	Co-hosted with Sathish
2017	6th South Indian International Movie Awards
2017	PillA	Sahasra	Viu	Telugu
	As I'm Suffering From Kadhal	Meera	Hotstar	Tamil
2019	What's Up Velakkari	Jessi	ZEE5
	What's Up Panimanishi			Telugu
	Rakta Chandanaa	Janaki Atholi	Watcho	Kannada
2021	Alludu Garu	Ammu	Aha	Telugu
2022	Loser	Maya Sivaramakrishna	ZEE5		Season 2
	Recce	Gouri
	Mad Company	Roshini	Aha	Tamil

Controversies

Offensive post targeting Tamil community

In 2012, when the IPL team Chennai Super Kings qualified for the playoffs, Dhanya took to Facebook and wrote a disparaging message, alleging that people from Chennai were dependent on the people of Bangalore for basic necessities.^[10] She claimed that Chennai residents (Tamils) relied on Bangalore for water and electricity, further asserting that they contributed to making Karnataka's capital unclean when visiting.

These remarks sparked significant backlash at the time. Dhanya Balakrishna initially announced her departure from Tamil cinema. However, despite this declaration, she continued to feature in Tamil films such as Raja Rani, Carbon, and Yaar Ivan, as well as in Tamil web series like As I'm Suffering From Kadhal.^[11]

In 2024, as the release of Lal Salaam, directed by Aishwarya Rajinikanth, approached, Dhanya's past comments resurfaced as she was cast as a lead in the film. People questioned the director's decision to cast someone who held negative views about the Tamil community in a Tamil film.^[12]

Responding to the controversy, Dhanya issued a statement denying authorship of the post. The actress asserted that the post was fabricated by a troll, vehemently denying ever making such derogatory comments. She pledged her professional integrity, affirming that she had never expressed such sentiments in the past.^{[13][non-primary source needed]}