She began her career in Tamil film at the age of fourteen as a dancer. About five years she continued as a dancer. At the age of 19 her first movie, as heroine, is released in Malayalam titled Avalude Raavukal (Her Nights), directed by I. V. Sasi. She continued acting till 1988 and took a break in her career life after the Malayalam movie Mahayaanam. Again became active in 1998 through Olympion Antony Adam. Seema won the Kerala State Film Award for best actress in 1984 and in 1985, and is well known for her versatility. She married I.V. Sasi, the veteran South Indian director and is blessed with a daughter and son.
Seema born in Eranakulam, Kerala in 1957 as the only child of her parents. At the age of twelve she joined to learn dance and learned many dancing steps from Kamal Hassan, who was the assistant of her dance master, Thankappan.
She entered in to film work as a normal group dancer, under dance master Chopra when she was at fourteen. Later she became up to the level of dance master and worked in film industry as composer also as dancer around five years of time. Meanwhile at the age of 17 she was asked to act in a Kannada movie as a second heroine with Kannada actor Amresh. I. V. Sasi spotted her and given the chance to act in his film "Avalude Raavukal" (literal translation: Her Nights)as heroine. The shooting of this movie started on 1977 and released on March 3 1978. The classic movie with Sherif's script and I. V. Sasi's direction, created waves in the Malayalm audience because of its soft porn nature and the challenging subject. The name Shanthi changed to Seema through this movie. The very daring and challenging role that any other actresses were reluctant to do has been done by Seema, helped her to get noticed by other directors. But the movie gave sexy and glamorous image to the actress, and audiences were always expecting such kind of roles from her. She became the heartthrob of the Malayalam film industry and got noticed by other directors.
During that time the Malayalm film industry was ruled by yesteryear's actresses Sheela, Sharada, Jayabharathi, K. R. Vijaya, and Srividya. Seema received roles from many directors, but most of them were the glamorous with exposing type, or as a second heroine always behind the shadows of others. She accepted all kind of roles and gave confidence to directors that any kind of role was safe in her hands. But the situation changed when her movies with Super Star Jayan became mega hits. The Jayan and Seema pair attracted people to theatres. This made her an independent heroine of the movies. Angaadi, Kaanthavalayam, Sakthi, Manushyamrugam, Bens Vasu, Meen, Karimpana, Thadavara, and Anupallavi are some of Jayan-Seema Hit movies. Though she became a lead heroine still she could lose her glamorous image. Mini skirts and swimsuits were always part of her costumes. The hit pair could not endure for a long time, the unexpected demise of Jayan was a great loss for the industry and the most loved and accepted pair ended.
Directors wanted to find another star to fill the gap left by Jayan. Many movies were planned for Jayan, one such a movie was "Sphodanam" directed by P. G. Viswambaran. He gave the chance to Mammooty to take the role of Jayan, in the same movie in which Seema also acted. Later Ratheesh came, also paired with Seema. Seema continued her acting paired with them.
