Shanthamma (1925–19 July 2020) was an Indian actress in the Kannada film industry, as well as in Hindi and Tamil, and a theatre artist in Karnataka, India.

[2] Shanthamma was born in Kannuru, a locality in Bangalore of the erstwhile Kingdom of Mysore (in present-day Karnataka) in 1928.

Shanthamma's family resided in Madras (now Chennai) for 15 years, before moving to Bangalore.

[5] Anil Kumar encouraged Shanthamma to act in films; he would later work a dance teacher in Vinayaka Krishna Gokak's company.

She went on to appear in over 190 films, including in Tamil such as Mullum Malarum (1978), that saw her play the role of mother-in-law of Rajinikanth's character.