Manjula was born to M. H. Shivanna and Deveramma on 5th April 1951 in Honnenahalli, a village in Tumkur District. She belonged to a prominent lingayat family, her father Shivanna was a police sub inspector. She was married to film director Amritham who worked with her in films such as: Hudugaatada Hudugi, Kanasu Nanasu etc.,. The couple had a son, Abhishek, who married Sushma Srinivas, in 2009; and an adopted daughter, Abhinaya.

Manjula started her acting career in 1965 with a drama troupe Prabhat Kalavidaru. She then entered the Kannada film industry in a small role through the film Mane Katti Nodu in 1966. The film was directed by Sri Sadguru. Her lead actress debut was in the 1972 film Yaara Saakshi, which was directed by veteran director M. R. Vittal. She has shared screen with south super stars like Rajkumar and Vishnuvardhan and also other prominent actors like Srinath and Shankar Nag and others, but most successful^[vague] is with Srinath.^[5] They acted together in about 35 films.^[1] She starred in over one hundred films during her film career. She has played a variety of roles and most of her films became successful. Some of her notable films are Sampathige Savaal, Durgi, Yeradu Kanasu, Besuge and Seetha Ramu. She has also acted with other Famous Actors such as Ramakrishna(Telugu), Kamala Haasan and Rajnikanth (Tamil).

Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam

Tamil

Manjula suffered from weight related problems during the early 1980s, while she was at the top of her career, and that ended her career as a romantic actress. She had a hurried marriage with Amritam. The film offers dried up and she had financial difficulties. Depressed, she died due to a kitchen stove-burst on 12th September 1986.