Sunaina
Indian actress
Sunaina Yella (born 17 April 1989), known professionally as Sunaina, is an Indian actress and model who predominantly works in Tamil and Telugu films. She debuted in Telugu with Kumar Vs Kumari (2005) and in Tamil with Kadhalil Vizhunthen (2008). She has since starred in the films Vamsam (2010), Neerparavai (2012), Trip and Raja Raja Chora (both 2021), and the television shows Nila Nila Odi Vaa (2018), Chadarangam (2020) and Inspector Rishi (2024).
01Early life and career
Sunaina was born in April 1989 in Nagpur, India into a Telugu family. She was raised in Nagpur and the family later moved to Hyderabad.
She had her first screen appearance in Kumar Vs Kumari (2005), a Telugu film. Her next film 10th Class (2006) was her first breakthrough in Telugu cinema. She next made her Malayalam and Kannada cinema debut in Best Friends (2006) and Gange Baare Thunge Baare (2008) respectively.
She rose to fame starring with Nakul in Kadhalil Vizhunthen (2008) which was her Tamil début film. Prior to that, she shot for a short scene in Sivaji (2007), which did not make the final cut. She later starred in Vamsam (2010) in which she appeared as a beautiful village girl and did very well, and continued with performance oriented films where she secured her first Filmfare nomination for Neerparavai (2012). Her performance was critically praised and she was nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Actress, Tamil.
After that she appeared in films like Samar (2013), Vanmam (2014) and also gave a guest appearance opposite Vijay in Theri (2016). She then appeared in Nambiyaar (2016), Kavalai Vendam (2016), Thondan (2017). In 2018, she acted in the drama film Kaali starring Vijay Antony and Anjali. Next, she appeared in Nila Nila Odi Vaa, Viu original romantic thriller series that released in September 2018. She has also done Sillu Karupatti (2019), and comedian Yogi Babu’s film titled Trip (2021).
Raja Raja Chora (2021) was considered to be her comeback in Telugu cinema after 10th Class (2006). She had also appeared in the Amazon Prime Video series Inspector Rishi, released in 2024.
02Filmography
| † | Denotes films that have not yet been released |
Films
| Year | Film | Role | Language | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Kumar Vs Kumari | Sudha | Telugu | |
| 2006 | Something Special | Mahi | ||
| 10th Class | Sandhya | |||
| Best Friends | Kavya | Malayalam | ||
| 2007 | Pagale Vennela | Swapna | Telugu | credited as Mythili |
| Missing | Kavya | |||
| 2008 | Gange Baare Thunge Baare | Ganga | Kannada | |
| Kadhalil Vizhunthen | Meera | Tamil | ||
| 2009 | Maasilamani | Divya Ramanathan | ||
| 2010 | Yaathumagi | Anna Lakshmi | ||
| Vamsam | Malar Kodi | |||
| 2012 | Pandi Oliperukki Nilayam | Valar Mathi | ||
| Thiruthani | Sugeesha | |||
| Neerparavai | Esther | Nominated, Filmfare Award for Best Actress, Tamil | ||
| 2013 | Samar | Roopa | ||
| 2014 | Vanmam | Vadhana | ||
| 2016 | Theri | Bride | Cameo appearance | |
| Nambiar | Saroja Devi | |||
| Kavalai Vendam | Deepa | |||
| 2017 | Thondan | Bagalamugi | ||
| Pelliki Mundu Prema Katha | Anu | Telugu | ||
| 2018 | Kaali | Poo Mayilu (Parvathy) | Tamil | |
| 2019 | Enai Noki Paayum Thota | Mythili | ||
| Sillu Karupatti | Amudhini | |||
| 2021 | Trip | Lidi (Paapi) | ||
| Raja Raja Chora | Vidya | Telugu | ||
| 2022 | Estate | Reba | Tamil | |
| Laththi | Kavitha Muruganantham | |||
| 2023 | Regina | Regina | ||
| 2024 | Rocket Driver | Kamala | ||
| 2025 | Kuberaa | Shilpa | Telugu | |
| Deepa | Tamil |
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Language | Network | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Nila Nila Odi Vaa | Nila | Tamil | Viu | ||
| 2019 | High Priestess | Radhika | Telugu | ZEE5 | Appears in the episode "Friends" | |
| Fingertip | Rekha | Tamil | Season 1; Appears under segment "Greed". | |||
| 2020 | Chadarangam | Kranthi | Telugu | |||
| 2022 | Meet Cute | Kiran | SonyLIV | Appears under segment "Ex-Girlfriend" | ||
| 2024 | Inspector Rishi | Kathryn "Kathy" | Tamil | Amazon Prime Video |
03Personal life
In June 2024, Sunaina announced her engagement through a social-media post showing her holding a man's hand with a lock emoji. Media outlets subsequently identified the fiancé as Emirati content creator Khalid Al Ameri after both shared similar photographs featuring engagement rings. In December 2025, Al Ameri publicly confirmed their relationship by posting a birthday photo featuring the couple together.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Sunaina”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Sunaina FF (cropped).jpg by Bollywood Hungama, CC BY 3.0
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