Some careers in Malayalam cinema announce themselves twice. Nazriya Nazim's did. She first appeared as a child performer in Palunku (2006), directed by Blessy, and years later returned as the lead of Ohm Shanthi Oshaana (2014), the film that carried her name into households across Kerala and well beyond it. Between those two points sits an unusual arc: a young performer who stepped away, came back, and then quietly built a second career on the other side of the camera as a producer.
For readers outside the region, one piece of vocabulary helps at the start. A child artist is a young performer who plays a supporting role in a film, often a character's younger self or a family member. It is usually a small part with a few scenes, and most child artists do not continue into adult careers. Nazriya Nazim did, which is part of why her filmography is worth tracing.
Photo: trimukha malayalam
A Child Artist Who Became A Leading Name
The distance between Palunku (2006) and Ohm Shanthi Oshaana (2014) is where the story actually lives. The first is a brief introduction under a director known for literary restraint. The second is a full star turn, and it arrived with a character who set the tone for much of what followed.
In Ohm Shanthi Oshaana, she plays Dr. Pooja Mathew, a spirited young woman who has decided she wants a love marriage and sets out to win over Giri, the man who once rescued her from a group of unruly men. It is a role built on forward motion. Pooja chases, plans and refuses to sit still, and the performance works because it never softens her into someone more polite than she is.
That assertiveness was not the only register available to her, though. A year earlier, Neram (2013) cast her as Jeena, in a film whose tension runs on circumstance and timing rather than on a single driving will. Then came Bangalore Days (2014), where she played Divya Prakash, known to everyone as Kunju, in a story about three cousins, Aju, Divya and Kuttan, who move to Bangalore to dream, discover and explore. Kunju is the youngest of the trio and the film's emotional hinge, and the role showed that the same performer could carry lightness and longing in the same scene.
The Roles She Returns To
Look across the filmography and a pattern emerges, though not a rigid one. She is drawn to women who are paying close attention. Pooja Mathew watches Giri. Priyadarshini watches her neighbourhood. Even when the genre shifts, the posture stays similar.
Trance (2020) is the sharpest turn. As Esther Lopez, she moves into a more disquieting register, in a film about belief, manipulation and the machinery that surrounds both. It is a long way from the sunlit pursuit of Ohm Shanthi Oshaana, and it confirmed that she was willing to take a role that offers the audience very little comfort.
Then Sookshmadarshini (2024) brought her back to a lead part in a mystery. She plays Priyadarshini, a woman in a middle-class neighbourhood who grows suspicious when Manuel returns to his former home with his mother. Convinced he may be hiding something sinister, Priyadarshini and her friends begin gathering clues. The character is ordinary on the surface, a neighbour with time on her hands, and the film's tension comes from watching her treat small details as evidence.
What connects these parts is curiosity as a form of action. Her characters rarely wait to be told what is happening. They investigate, whether the subject is a man, a marriage or a house at the end of the street.
The Producer's Chair And Her Place In Malayalam Cinema
The second career is the one that surprises readers who only know her face. As a producer, her confirmed credits are Kumbalangi Nights (2019), C U Soon (2020), Joji (2021), Malayankunju (2022), Aavesham (2024), Premalu (2024) and Painkili (2025). That is a remarkable run by any measure, and it spans formats as well as tones, from a screen-life thriller to a coastal family drama to a comedy about young men drifting through a city.
Premalu (2024) is the clearest illustration of why this matters. The film follows Sachin, a carefree graduate, who crosses paths with Reenu, a spirited IT professional, in Hyderabad. As their friendship deepens, unspoken feelings, career ambitions and life choices challenge their bond. It is a romance built on conversation and hesitation rather than grand gesture, and it became one of the most discussed Malayalam films of the past decade.
