Pooja Hegde

Around the same time, she was nominated for Best Actress at the 62nd Filmfare Awards (South).

Following a production house and the success of the director Vijay Konda's previous venture, had prompted her to work on the project.

She undertook Telugu lessons to help her portray the leading female role.

Pooja Hegde ( born 13 October 1990) is an Indian actress who predominantly appears in Telugu, Hindi and Tamil films.

Pooja Hegde was born on 13 October 1990 and brought up in Mumbai, Maharashtra in a Tulu-speaking Bunt family.

Her parents are Manjunath Hegde and Latha Hegde.

They are originally from Udupi, Karnataka.

She also has an elder brother Rishabh Hegde, who is an orthopaedic surgeon.

Besides Tulu, she is fluent in English, Hindi and Marathi.

She later learnt Telugu following a career in her respective cinema.

She did her schooling in Maneckji Cooper Education Trust School, Mumbai.

She went to M. M. K. College, where she regularly participated in dance and fashion shows.

Hegde competed in the Miss India 2009 competition, but was eliminated in an early round despite winning the Miss India Talented 2009 honour.

She began her career as a model and was crowned as the second runner-up at the 2010 I Am She–Miss Universe India pageant.

She re-applied the following year and was the second runner-up in the Miss Universe India 2010 competition.

She made her acting debut with the Tamil film Mugamoodi (2012) and had her first Telugu release in Oka Laila Kosam (2014).

Hegde has established herself as one of the leading actresses in Telugu cinema.

Hegde made her acting debut in Mysskin's Tamil superhero film Mugamoodi (2012) opposite Jiiva, portraying the female lead character of Shakthi, a fun-loving girl who inspires the male lead to change his outlook on society.

She was selected after Mysskin had seen still photographs from her pageant success, and Hegde helped practice Tamil dialogue for the film by writing and memorising words in English, adding that the similarity between Tamil and her native tongue Tulu was also useful.

Prior to release, the film garnered high expectations as a result of the novel theme of a superhero in Tamil films and the film took a grand opening at the box office in August 2012.

Times of India stated that "Pooja Hegde though has little to do and comes across as just another pretty face."

NDTV wrote "Pooja Hegde, the debutante may have floored everyone with her amiable appearance, but she definitely needs some coaching in expressions."

She earned a nomination for the Best Tamil Female Debut Actress at the 2nd South Indian International Movie Awards.

Hegde's second film release, the Telugu film Oka Laila Kosam (2014), featured her opposite Naga Chaitanya.

She was praised for her performance in the movie.

Her second Telugu film, Mukunda, was a romantic-action tale, set in the backdrop of a village, released in late 2014.

In July 2014, Hegde agreed terms to make her Bollywood debut opposite Hrithik Roshan in Ashutosh Gowariker's period film Mohenjo Daro, set against the backdrop of the Indus Valley civilisation.

She was selected after Gowariker's wife had spotted her in an advertisement and called her to audition, which she successfully completed.

As a result of her commitment to the film, she revealed that she would take a break from appearing in regional Indian movies until her Hindi film's release and rejected an opportunity to work in a film directed by Mani Ratnam.

Mohenjo Daro released in 2016.

On her performance, Lisa Tsering of The Hollywood Reporter wrote she "brings a forgettable blandness to her sparsely sketched role."

Writing for IndiaTimes, Shubha Shetty Saha wrote, "Pooja Hegde is pretty and makes quite a confident debut."

and became major box office flop.

Her other commercially successful films include Duvvada Jagannadham (2017), Maharshi (2019), Gaddalakonda Ganesh (2019) and Housefull 4 (2019).

This was followed by a career setback as the 2022 films Radhe Shyam, Beast, Acharya and Cirkus, and the 2023 film Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan, were all poorly received.

In 2017, she appeared in Telugu-language vigilante action comedy film Duvvada Jagannadham alongside actor Allu Arjun.

Writing for The Indian Express, Manoj Kumar R found that "Pooja Hegde has convincingly done the given job that is to look stunning in every frame of the film. Especially, she looks ravishing in all the song sequences."

The film was successful in box office grossing over ₹150 crore.

She was nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Telugu for Oka Laila Kosam, Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo and Aravinda Sametha Veera Raghava (2018).

Hegde won the SIIMA Award for Best Actress – Telugu for her performance in Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo (2020) and Most Eligible Bachelor (2021).