She is considered one of the early pioneers of fashion designing for South Indian films.
[1] Nalini graduated with a degree in English literature and worked as a freelance writer during her early career.
After marrying film producer S. Sriram, she opted to pursue a career in fashion designing and made her debut with Mani Ratnam's Roja (1992).
[5][6][7][8] She has also worked in the Telugu film industry, notably designing the costumes for the cast in Gautham Menon's Ye Maaya Chesave (2010) and Vikram Kumar's Manam (2014).
[10] Nalini was married to film producer S. Sriram, who had headed Aalayam Productions.