Nidhi was born on 16 February 1985 in the Kodagu district of Karnataka as the only child to Bollachanda Subhash Subbaiah and Jhansi Subbaiah. Soon afterwards, her family later moved to Gokulam in the historic city of Mysore, where she spent most of her childhood and pursued her education. Nidhi had made her mark in sports by winning gold medals at national level sports meets in sailing while she was studying II PUC in Mysore. She also has the credit of winning three gold medals in a calendar year at the sports meet