Anushka Shetty, born Sweety Shetty on 7 November 1981 in Mangalore, Karnataka, is an Indian actress who works in Tamil and Telugu films. She is popularly called the “Queen of South Indian cinema” in the media and is one of the highest-paid actresses in India. She has won three Filmfare Awards South, two Nandi Awards, two SIIMA Awards and a Tamil Nadu State Film Award, and she received the Kalaimamani title from the Tamil Nadu government in 2010.
She is an ethnic Tuluva from a Tulu-speaking Bunt family in Bellipady village in Puttur taluk of Dakshina Kannada. Her parents are Prafulla and A. N. Vittal Shetty, and she has two older brothers, Gunaranjan Shetty and Sai Ramesh Shetty. She earned a Bachelor of Computer Applications degree from Mount Carmel College in Bangalore and worked as a yoga instructor trained under Bharat Thakur. Her screen name came during her debut: the director Puri Jagannadh and the producer Nagarjuna wanted one because they felt “Sweety” might not appeal to the audience, and they adopted the first name of Anushka Manchanda, who was singing one of the songs in the film.
Her debut was Puri Jagannadh’s Telugu film Super in 2005, which brought a Filmfare Best Supporting Actress (Telugu) nomination, and she was seen in Mahanandi the same year. In 2006 she starred in S. S. Rajamouli’s blockbuster Vikramarkudu opposite Ravi Teja, and then in Astram, a remake of the Hindi film Sarfarosh, and made her Tamil debut with Sundar C’s Rendu with R. Madhavan. She had a special appearance with Chiranjeevi in Stalin. In 2007 she acted in Lakshyam and in Don opposite Nagarjuna, and in 2008 appeared in six films, including Souryam, a hit with Gopichand.
In 2009 the fantasy Arundhati, in which she played two roles for the first time, was a blockbuster that won her the Filmfare Award for Best Actress (Telugu) and a Nandi Special Jury Award. Her portrayal of a prostitute in the drama Vedam won her a second consecutive Filmfare Best Actress award. In Tamil cinema she starred in action films including Vettaikaaran (2009), Singam (2010), Singam II (2013) and Yennai Arindhaal (2015), all major commercial successes, and drew praise for the dramas Vaanam (2011), Deiva Thirumagal (2011) and Size Zero (2015).
In 2015 she played the titular queen in the epic Rudhramadevi, which won her a third Filmfare Best Actress award for Telugu. Her role as Princess Devasena in the Baahubali series (2015–17) received wide acclaim. Her first Malayalam film, Kathanar – The Wild Sorcerer, which marks her 50th film, is expected in the second half of 2026.
Several of her early films were box-office successes, among them Lakshyam (2007), Souryam (2008) and Chintakayala Ravi (2008), and Super paired her with Nagarjuna and Ayesha Takia, while Billa, a 2009 remake of a 2007 Tamil film, received mixed reviews. A career spanning two decades, with lead roles across fantasy, action, drama and historical epics, has kept her among the most bankable actresses in South Indian cinema.
Featured image: Anushka Shetty at the TeachAIDS Tech Awards Gala, November 2013 (file photo). Photo by TeachAIDS from Stanford, California, USA, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
