She was initiated into classical arts under the tutelage of Padmashree Leela Samson in Bharatanatyam and Pandit Partho Das on the sitar.

She then played a lead role as a princess in Prema Karanth's Panorama children's film Nakkala Rajakumari.

Her earlier television series were for Girish Karnad and Ashutosh Gowariker in Hindi, Ashok Naidu in Kannada and Dinesh Baboo in Malayalam.

Malavika's Tamil films and Serials include Raji Or Raja Rajeshwari Role in "Raja Rajeshwari" Sun TV Serial 90'S Kids Favourite (Saregama India Ltd) Company Episodes Directors are Selva Kumar and Selva Pandi and K. Balachander's Nilavai Pidippom where she portrayed a middle-class working woman, Pudhuyugam, Pralayam in "Comedy Colony" again under her mentor Balachander.

[3] Another milestone was her portrayal of Nanjamma, the protagonist in Girish Kasaravalli's film of S. L. Bhyrappa's celebrated novel, Gruha Banga.

[citation needed] Apart from Manvantara for T. N. Seetharam, Malavika swayed the Kannada audiences with her cult figure like character of Madhavi Patel, IPS, in his Muktha.

[citation needed] Agni, a talk show that Malavika hosted on E-TV Kannada was followed by Baduku Jataka Bandi.

In the latter, Malavika deals with the problems of individuals, thereby providing an Alternate Dispute Resolution forum for resolving family issues.

[9] The defense of Malavika on the decision of her party to enforce GST on sanitary pads provoked a lot of backlash from people.