Saranya Ponvannan (born April 1970), born as Sheela Christina Raj, is a popular South Indian film actress who has predominantly appeared in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam language films and a few Kannada language films.
Saranya made her debut in a lead role in Mani Ratnam's Nayakan (1987) and went on to play lead roles from 1987-1996.
Following an eight-year sabbatical, she returned to films as a character actor, specializing in "mother of the hero" roles.