She was born on October 26, 1985 into a Syro Malabar , Syrian Christian family in Kochi, Kerala. Her full name is Asin Thottumkal and her father Joseph Thottumkal was a prominent entrepreneur. Her mother Seline Thottumkal was a surgeon.Asin has quoted that her name "means pure and without blemish". She claims that "the 'A' in her name is from Sanskrit meaning "without", and ‘Sin’ from English".
She made her film debut with a supporting role in a Malayalam movie 'Narendran Makan Jayakanthan Vaka' in 2001 at the age of 15. It was unsuccessful and she continued with her education by taking a one year break from her career. She again came back with a Telugu movie 'Amma Nanna O Tamila Ammayi' opposite Raviteja in the direction of Puri Jagannadh. It turned out to be a big success and gave her many laurels for her role portrayal in that film and fetched her the Filmfare Award for Best Actress Award. She even got a chance to play the same role again in its Tamil version 'M.Kumaran S/o of Mahalakshmi'in which she acted opposite Jayam Ravi. Her second movie in Telugu was 'Sivamani' opposite Tollywood biggie Nagarjuna which fetched her the SAnthosham Best Actress Award. This increased her following in Tollywood and consequently did hit movies like Lakshmi Narasimha and Gharshana. These back to back hits cemented her place in Tollywood.
Her success in Kollywood too gave her good oppotunities alongside with leading actors like Surya,Vikram, Vijay, Ajith in films like Ghajini, Majaa, Sivakasi, Varalaru respectively. Ghajini gave her a big break and not only cemented her place in the Kollywood but also earned her the Tamil Filmfare Best Actress Award. Ullam Ketkume was supposed to be her launch pad alongside then-debutants Arya and Pooja Umashankar in the direction of Late Jeeva, but due to its delayed shooting 'Kumaran S/o of Mahalakshmi' became her first movie. Gajini with Tamil leading actor Surya in the direction of A.R.Murugadoss brought her laurels for her performance and she became a hot property in both Kollywood and Tollywood. Later, Pokkiri opposite Vijay came out and again gave her a massive hit and her performance was praised by critics. In this mean while, she did a movie 'Annavaram' opposite Pawan Kalyan in Telugu.
She got a chance to act opposite Indian famous actor Kamal Hassan in K.S.Ravikumar's magnum opus movie 'Dasavatharam'. She played dual roles in this film one being of a Vaishnavite in the 12th century, the other being a Brahmin girl from Chidambaram.It became one of the biggest hits in the South Indian film industry.Then her career took a much awaiting break by getting a chance to act opposite none other than Aamir Khan in her first Bollywood movie, which was a remake of her Tamil version Gajini with the same name in Hindi in the direction of A.R.Murugadoss. She got rave reviews from critics for her performance in this movie and even she was nominated for Filmfare Best Actress Award.
