The clever duality at the heart of Nayanthara’s superstardom

In films like Darbar and Jawan, Nayanthara serves as the anchor for Rajinikanth and Shah Rukh Khan, respectively. She is not positioned as the lead in these narratives; instead, she functions as the conveniently placed female presence, providing stability, a romantic arc, and the emotional grounding that offsets the hero’s larger-than-life persona. These roles, which could easily slip into one-note caricatures in the hands of a less capable actress, become memorable because of the star presence Nayanthara brings to them.

It is rare for audiences to walk out of a superstar-driven film still thinking about the female lead. Women in such films are usually sidelined, reduced to emotional touchpoints that add little intrinsic value to the narrative. Yet Nayanthara transforms these limited roles into something far more impactful. She brings in the years of goodwill earned from similar supporting performances, turning even these parts into markers of her own stardom.

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In Jawan, Nayanthara takes a weakly conceived, one-note single mother archetype and elevates it into a performance worthy of a superstar. She remains consistently captivating on screen, delivering each emotional beat with clarity and urgency, all while holding her own opposite an in-form Shah Rukh Khan, who is clearly relishing his dual role. Very few actresses today can command the gravitas and conviction required to make such a character land convincingly amid the chaos of a large-scale, action-driven production.

Yet in the same year, 2023, Nayanthara flipped this dynamic entirely by headlining the relatively low-budget Annapoorani: The Goddess of Food, taking on a leading role that stood in stark contrast to her big-ticket commercial outing.

This film, which follows a Brahmin girl aspiring to become a celebrated chef despite opposition from her conservative parents, uses the duality in Nayanthara’s filmography to striking effect. Built entirely around a female lead, Annapoorani: The Goddess of Food requires Nayanthara to shoulder the full weight of the narrative arc, guiding us through every emotional and thematic beat. She holds complete agency here; the story revolves around her inner conflict and growth, and the film exists largely because of her stardom.

Although Jai appears as the male lead, he is not the focus of the story. The film remains firmly centered on Annapoorani’s journey as she confronts the constraints of her upbringing, which form the primary obstacle in her path. Despite minimal promotion and limited buzz, the film managed to draw significant attention solely because of Nayanthara’s presence. This represents an important strand of her filmography: projects that rely on her stardom to bring modest, character-driven stories to life.

Even though there are many actresses who excel as steady presences in male-driven commercial films, Nayanthara stands apart for her ability to balance industry demands without sacrificing her individuality as an artiste. In 2015, she released the modestly budgeted horror film Maya, immediately after delivering one of her biggest hits, Thani Oruvan, in which she starred alongside Jayam Ravi in a conventional commercial setup. These two films are diametrically opposite, aimed at different audiences and rooted in entirely different storytelling modes. The only thread connecting them is the leading lady: Nayanthara.

In one film, she reinforces the demands of traditional studio filmmaking, where men dominate the narrative and the heroine often becomes a footnote in a larger spectacle. Yet in the very same year, she gathered the time, resources, and conviction to lead Maya, an innovative and atmospheric horror fable that required a star willing to back its unconventional vision.

This duality has been a defining trait of Nayanthara’s career. Beyond box-office positioning and star power, her performance style itself shifts fluidly between two distinct modes. No performer can, or should, deliver the same pitch across vastly different genres, and Nayanthara understands this instinctively. She is confident enough to occupy the background in a film like Thani Oruvan, offering a broad, commercially calibrated performance that fits the template and stays safely within its boundaries. Yet in that very same year, she pivots completely in Maya, embodying a psychologically burdened woman navigating emotional turmoil. The commanding star presence she projects in Thani Oruvan dissolves into a subdued, internalized performance in Maya, where the myth of Nayanthara steps aside to make room for vulnerability and nuance. She can deliver the song-and-dance routines and the expected romantic subplot in one film, while also being the bold star who places her full trust, and considerable clout, behind a debut director’s unconventional vision in another.

In superstar-driven films, her gravitas and commanding aura allow the leading lady to register without much narrative support. Filmmakers rely on Nayanthara’s screen image and stardom as tools to strengthen their stories.

The Ajith Kumar-starrer Viswasam (2019) uses Nayanthara in a remarkably effective way, casting her as a single mother who chooses to raise her daughter away from her husband, whose ruffian lifestyle makes their home unsafe. Ajith’s attempts to reconnect with his estranged wife and child are constantly counterbalanced by Nayanthara, who becomes the emotional pillar that grounds the film’s central conflict.

The casting here is particularly noteworthy, because the role hinges on a strong sense of independence. With Nayanthara in the part, the audience immediately understands how formidable a challenge the hero faces as he tries to break through her composed, resolute exterior. A familiar archetype is transformed into something both lived-in and larger-than-life through her presence. Ajith Kumar’s character finds in Nayanthara the perfect foil: her stubborn nonchalance heightens his desperation and sincerity, sharpening the film’s emotional stakes. Her performance gives the narrative a weight it would not have possessed otherwise.

Nayanthara also takes on gender-swapped roles, as seen in 2017’s Aramm, where she plays District Collector Madhivadhani, a character defined by an almost magnetic command over her surroundings. The role demands an actress capable of projecting quiet, unwavering strength, and Nayanthara meets this challenge with remarkable poise. The austerity and stillness typically reserved for male stars are afforded to her here, allowing her to become the central axis around which the film’s core conflict revolves.

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The crisis of a child falling into a borewell is shaped into a low-key thriller that centres on a female district collector determined to straighten out a sluggish bureaucracy through sheer resolve. It’s the kind of muted, weighty role typically written for male stars, one where the protagonist methodically “saves the day.” But here, the film’s aesthetics are restrained, less action-driven, and more focused on the procedural effort of correcting systemic failures.

Within this framework, Nayanthara brings depth to even the smallest gestures. Her stares, silences, and measured eye-rolls carry meaning, an expressive freedom rarely afforded to actresses in mainstream commercial cinema. Her performance grounds the film with a quiet authority that elevates the entire narrative.

Nayanthara’s filmography is a reminder that female superstardom in India need not be monolithic. She can be the emotional anchor in a male-driven spectacle one week and the uncompromising centre of a small, idea-driven film the next. In an industry that often sidelines its women, she has carved out a rare space, one where commercial stature and artistic curiosity do not cancel each other out but continually enrich one another.