Actress Namitha Mukesh Vankawala was born on 10 May 1981 in Surat, Gujarat. She started her career as a beauty pageant contestant and was crowned Miss Surat during the year of 1998 at the age of 17. She participated in the 2001 Miss India pageant and ended up as the third runner-up, while Celina Jaitley was crowned Miss India. She moved to Mumbai and subsequently she did a number of TV commercials such as Himani cream and hand soap, Arun Ice Creams, Manikchand Gutka, and Nile Herbal Shampoo early in her career. Unable to make a breakthrough into the Hindi film industry, she enrolled in an English Literature course and then considered returning to Surat but chose to later accept an invitation to audition for a Telugu film. After being selected, she consequently made her acting debut in Sreenu Vaitla's coming-of-age romantic film, Sontham in the year 2002. Her next film was Gemini the same year opposite Venkatesh, which gathered attention.
In the mid-2000s, she became popular in Tamil language films opposite aging actors such as Vijayakanth, Sathyaraj, Arjun, Parthiban, Sundar C, and Sarathkumar. She appeared in a series of commercial action films like Aai, Chanakya and Aanai, Engal Anna. During that period, she appeared in her first Hindi film Love Ke Chakkar Mein, worked on a Kannada film titled Namitha I Love You, and shot for an English film, Maya, which was later released in 2008 as Kamasutra Nights. In 2007, she had the opportunity to work with two leading actors from Tamil cinema, respectively appearing with Vijay in the A. R. Rahman-musical Azhagiya Tamil Magan and Ajith Kumar in Vishnuvardhan's gangster film Billa. By the end of the period, Namitha had developed a "cult following" in Tamil Nadu as a result of her glamorous appearances in films, with the media regularly looking to feature her in reports and Behindwoods.com labeled her “omnipotent and omnipresent”
Namitha's popularity began to decline after 2009 and the South Indian film industry moved away from casting women in outright glamorous roles. She took up smaller roles and guest appearances in Jaganmohini (2009), Azhagana Ponnuthan (2010), Ilamai Oonjal (2016).
In 2017, Namitha appeared on the Tamil reality television show, Bigg Boss hosted by Kamal Haasan. During her stint in the show, she was widely criticized for her harsh treatment of actress Oviya. Her upcoming projects include T. Rajender's Indraya Kadhal Da, where she plays the antagonist.
At the height of her success in 2008, Namitha's devotees built her a temple near Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. She became the second actress after Khushbu in the state to be immortalized in such a fashion by her fan following. In 2012, the actress was chosen by Tokyo TV, a Japanese media station, as the "most beautiful person" in India. She joined AIADMK in 2016 in the presence of the party general secretary and Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa. In July 2020, after 8 months of joining the BJP, Namitha was appointed as one of the state executive members of the BJP in Tamil Nadu.
Namitha married businessman Veerendra Chowdary in Tirupathi in 2017. She delivered twin sons in August 2022.
