Namitha was born on May 10, 1984 in Surat. Her full name is Namita M Vankawala. She studied at the ACS, Seremban. Her father is a textile businessman and her mother is a housewife. She has an older brother, Nevil Vankawala who is married and has a daughter named Yashi. Namita currently lives in Chennai following her burgeoning movie career. She has over 30 films to her credit. With over 2500 fan clubs, Nams is probably the most popular actress in South India.

She started her career by participating in the Femina Miss India Contest. She was crowned Miss Surat in 2000 and came fourth in the Miss India contest during the year 2001 alongside Trisha Krishnan and Celina Jaitley.

She made her debut with the Telugu film 'Sontham'. She came into the limelight after her Tamil film 'Engal Anna' opposite Vijayakanth, broke box-office records. But what really sky-rocketed her to fame was her song, "Arjuna Arjuna" opposite Sarath Kumar.