Ayilya Gopalakrishnan, known professionally as Ananya, is an Indian actress who appears predominantly in Malayalam and Tamil language films as well as in a few Telugu and Kannada films. She is also a singer and an archer.
She made her acting debut in the Malayalam film Positive (2008) and also debuted the following year in Tamil through the film Naadodigal, which turned out to be a critical and commercial success. She received the Kerala State Television Award for Best Actress in 2012 for the telefilm Doore and the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress â Tamil for Engaeyum Eppothum in 2011.
Ananya was born as Ayilya to Gopalakrishnan Nair, a film producer, and Praseetha in Kochi, Kerala. She has a younger brother named Arjun. Her name was taken from her birth star (nakshatra), Aslesha, which is called Ayilyam in Malayalam. She studied at St. Joseph's High School in Kochi and thereafter pursued a B.A. degree in Communicative English at St. Xavier's College for Women, Aluva.
During her childhood, she was an archer and won the State Championship. While representing her college in a television reality show, Star Wars, she was spotted by various film directors and received acting offers. After declining around five projects, she finally decided to give it a try, accepting to act in the movie Positive. She had appeared as a child artist in one of her father's movie productions (executive producer), Pai Brothers (1995). Her house is situated at Perumbavoor.
Her screen name was changed to Ananya when she was working in her debut Tamil film Naadodigal. The film was a high commercial success, and Ananya rose to fame with her performance in the film being appreciated. She went on to reprise the same role in the film's Malayalam remake Ithu Nammude Katha. The film Shikkar alongside Mohanlal, gave her a big break in Malayalam. She did some thrilling scenes in the climax of the movie that impressed Mohanlal, which made him call her the "Vijayashanti" of Malayalam. She also played a supporting role in Kandahar, sharing screen space with Mohanlal and Amitabh Bachchan. In 2011, Ananya played one of the female leads in Engaeyum Eppothum, which received rave reviews and became a sleeper hit.
In 2014, she appeared in Pulivaal, her first Tamil release after three years.