Bhavana is the daughter of assistant Cinematographer, G. Balachandran Menon. She made her debut in Kamal's Nammal in 2002 opposite newcomers like R. Siddharth, Jishnu, and Renuka Menon. Her performance in 'Nammal' earned her critical acclaim and various honours, including the State award. She has worked in Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu movies. She has acted with almost all actors of Malayalam including Mammooty, Mohanlal, Suresh Gopi, Dileep, Jayaram, Prithviraj, Kunchacko Boban, Jayasurya etc.

Bhavana's first Tamil movie was the 2007 flick Koodal Nagar 2007 opposite Bharath, but couldn't release it as per the schedule because of some technical problem. The film was completed and released in April 2007. Her first released Tamil film Chithiram Pesuthadi in 2006 was a huge success.