Anushka Shetty

Sweety Shetty (born 7 November 1981), known by her stage name Anushka Shetty, is an Indian actress known for her work majorly in Telugu and Tamil cinema.

She is the recipient of three Filmfare Awards South, two Nandi Awards, two SIIMA Awards and one Tamil Nadu State Film Award.

Having appeared in 48 films in a variety of roles, she is one of the highest-paid South Indian actresses.

She next starred in the film Astram, a remake of the 1999 Hindi film Sarfarosh, following which she debuted in the Tamil film industry, acting in the Sundar C..-directed action flick Rendu, sharing screen space with R. Madhavan.

Later that year, she made a special appearance alongside Mega star Chiranjeevi in A. R. Murugadoss' directorial debut in Telugu, Stalin.

She made her acting debut with the 2005 Telugu film Super, which garnered her a Filmfare Best Supporting Actress – Telugu nomination.

The following year, she starred in S. S. Rajamouli's blockbuster hit Vikramarkudu.

Shetty made her acting debut in Puri Jagannadh's 2005 Telugu film Super, where she featured alongside Nagarjuna and Ayesha Takia.

and Sify stated, "The sexy girls Ayesha and Anushka show off their bodies."

For her performance, she earned her first nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress – Telugu.

The same year, she acted in another film Maha Nandi, opposite Srihari and Sumanth.

IndiaGlitz said, "Anushka looks comely ---and that is what she seems to be in for."

but added, "The script has been stitched and the seams look frayed."

Sify stated that it "starts promisingly with a racy first half but goes awry and the tempo slackens post interval."

and added, "Anushka looks ravishing thanks to Vasu's camera which is a major plus for the film."

In 2006, she had four releases, the first being S. S. Rajamouli's Vikramarkudu, where she was paired with Ravi Teja.

Kishore of Nowrunning.com said "The high points of the movie are the flawless acting of Raviteja and the lusciousness of Anushka. Raviteja has got all the ingredients that an actor should have and Anushka has all the assets to that a woman ought to have."

and Sify said that Anushka "is definitely a highlight."

Her further releases Lakshyam (2007), Souryam (2008), and Chintakayala Ravi (2008) were also box office successes.

Her first release in 2007 was Lakshyam which was a success in box office, after which she starred in Raghava Lawrence's Don opposite Nagarjuna again.

The former, in particular, succeeded at the box office.

In 2008 she had appeared in six films.

Okka Magaadu was the first release, in which she played one of three female leads.

Nandamuri Balakrishna was the actor opposite her in Okka Magaadu.

Her next releases Swagatam alongside Jagapati Babu and Bhumika Chawla and Baladur opposite Ravi Teja garnered poor reviews and box office returns.

She next appeared in the film Souryam with Gopichand which became a box office hit.

In 2009, Shetty played dual roles in the Telugu dark fantasy film Arundhati, which led her to her first Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Telugu, and Nandi Award.

The following year, Shetty's portrayal of a prostitute in the acclaimed drama Vedam won her a second consecutive Best Actress Award from Filmfare.

In the 2010s, Shetty also starred in Tamil cinema in the action films such as Vettaikaaran (2009), Singam (2010), Singam II (2013), and Yennai Arindhaal (2015), all of which were major commercial successes.

She continued to draw praise from critics with her leading performances in the dramas Vaanam (2011), Deiva Thirumagal (2011) and Size Zero (2015).

She portrayed the titular queen in the 2015 epic historical fiction Rudhramadevi, which won her the third Filmfare Award for Best Actress- Telugu.

Shetty's portrayal of Princess Devasena in the Baahubali series (2015–17) received widespread acclaim.

Shetty was born in Mangalore, Karnataka.

She is an ethnic Tuluva hailing from Tulu-speaking Bunt family from Bellipady village in Puttur taluk of Dakshina Kannada district.

Her parents are Prafulla and A. N. Vittal Shetty and she has two elder brothers, Gunaranjan Shetty and Sai Ramesh Shetty.

Shetty received her Bachelor of Computer Applications from Mount Carmel College in Bangalore.

She was also a yoga instructor, trained under Bharat Thakur.

While filming her debut film Super, the director Puri Jagannadh and producer Nagarjuna were keen for Shetty to have a screen name as they felt her real name Sweety may not be appealing to the audience.

While mulling over different names, they came across Anushka Manchanda who was singing one of the songs in the film.

They liked her first name and decided to adopt Anushka as the screen name for Shetty's film career.