Suhasini Mani Ratnam (சுஹாஸினி மணி ரத்னம்), commonly known as Suhasini (born 15th August 1961, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India) is an actress, screenwriter, producer, and director from India. Her first feature film was the Tamil movie Nenjathai Killathe, made in 1980. She has acted in many films since.
Suhasini is the niece of renowned Indian actor Kamal Haasan, and the daughter of another popular actor Chaaru Haasan. In 1988, she married acclaimed filmmaker Mani Ratnam. They have a 15-year old son. Her close friends are Radhika, Sumalatha, Sridevi & Revathy. She is a trained cinematographer with a penchant for dialogue writing also. Suhasini also specializes in costumes, make-up & hairstyling and sports a long hair. With her enthusiasm in hairstyles and make-up, she has helped her co-heroines like Radhika, Radha & Sumalatha improve their make-up. Sridevi in one of the interviews mentioned about Suhasini for helping her with an improved hairstyle.
In 1996, she stepped into direction, helming her first film Indira. She also wrote the screenplay for the film. The project was produced by G.V films .She and husband Mani Ratnam, are both involved in the running of their production company Madras Talkies, along with G. Srinivasan.
She won the coveted National Film Award for Best Actress in 1986 for her role in the 1985 Tamil film Sindhu Bhairavi, directed by K. Balachander.
She has acted in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada as well as Malayalam films. Her role in the AFI Fest nominated feature Vaanaprastham (1999) was particularly well received.
She was introduced to Malayalam cinema through Padmarajan's Koodevide? 1983 and became an integral part of malayalam cinema in the mid 80's.
Suhasini is a trained cinematographer , first girl student to graduate from Madras Film institute.
Niece of Kamal Hassan Daughter of Charu Haasan. Her son's name is Nandan. Has two sisters, Nandini and Subhashini.
