Rashmika Mandanna (born 5 April 1996) is an Indian actress who primarily works in Telugu and Hindi films. Known for her roles as the leading lady in big-budget action films, her accolades include five SIIMA Awards and a Filmfare Award South. She is among India's highest-paid actresses and was featured in Forbes India 2024 list of "30 Under 30".
After a brief modelling career in 2014, Mandanna made her acting debut with the Kannada romantic comedy Kirik Party (2016) and gained further commercial success with the action film Anjani Putra and the romantic drama Chamak (both 2017). She expanded into Telugu cinema in 2018 with the comedy drama Chalo and achieved her breakthrough with the romantic comedy Geetha Govindam, which earned her the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress – Telugu. She went on to star as the leading lady in the action comedies Sarileru Neekevvaru and Bheeshma (both 2020).
Further recognition came with the pan-India success of the Telugu action film Pushpa: The Rise (2021) and a supporting role in the period drama Sita Ramam (2022) earned Mandanna critical recognition. She went onto star in the Tamil film Varisu (2023) before venturing into Hindi cinema with two unremarkable releases. Her most commercially successful films include the action dramas Animal (2023), Pushpa 2: The Rule (2024), for which she won the SIIMA Award for Best Actress, and Chhaava (2025), all of which rank among the highest-grossing Indian films. Though reception to these roles were varied due to their limited prominence within largely androcentric narratives, she received critical acclaim for her performance as a woman navigating a dysfunctional relationship in the Telugu drama The Girlfriend (2025), which earned her another SIIMA Award for Best Actress.
In addition to her acting career, Mandanna is the celebrity endorser for several brands and products. She is married to her frequent co-star Vijay Deverakonda.
Early life and education Rashmika Mandanna was born on 5 April 1996 to Suman and Madan Mandanna into a Kodava Hindu family in Virajpet, a town in Kodagu district, Karnataka. Her father owns a coffee estate and a function hall in her hometown, and her mother is a homemaker. She has a younger sister, Shiman whom she helped raise and has said she "felt like a maternal figure" towards. As a child, she has said her family struggled financially, and had difficulties finding a home and paying rent; according to Mandanna, her parents could not afford to buy her toys and the experience has continued to taint her relationship with money.
Mandanna attended Coorg Public School, a boarding school in Gonikoppal. During this phase of her life, she was often misunderstood due to her struggles with communication, making connecting with her peers difficult. Mandanna credits her mother for being a stabilising influence in her life and labelled her "my biggest strength".
Mandanna studied for a bachelor's degree in psychology, journalism and English literature at M. S. Ramaiah College of Arts, Science and Commerce in Bengaluru. In 2014, Mandanna was awarded The Times of India Clean & Clear Fresh Face that recognises high-potential individuals; she was subsequently made a brand ambassador for Clean & Clear as part of the winning reward. This was followed by a brief modelling career in 2015, during which she won the second season of La Mode Bangalore's Top Model Hunt. Her success led to several acting offers from production houses, all of which she declined, as she had no intention of pursuing acting at the time. She was eventually persuaded by her college professor to audition, and after signing her first film, she informed her parents, who were initially hesitant due to her unassertive personality but ultimately gave their approval.
Career Early work and breakthrough (2016–2020) After reading she had won a pageant in the newspaper in 2015, Rishab Shetty offered Mandanna her debut in his Kannada romantic comedy Kirik Party (2016) opposite Rakshit Shetty. She was introduced as Saanvi, a shy college student with ambitions of becoming an engineer; Mandanna said she deeply identified with the character's experience of often being overlooked at school. In a positive review for The Times of India, Sunayana Suresh wrote that Mandanna "is easily that pin-up girl in college and she breathes her path". Kirik Party emerged as the year's highest-grossing Kannada film and her performance earned her the South Indian International Movie (SIIMA) Award for Best Debut Actress. Mandanna later revealed that if the film had failed, she would have had to return home to manage her father's business. Mandanna's 2017 releases—the action film Anjani Putra and the romantic comedy Chamak—brought her further commercial success, though critical reception to these roles was varied. For Chamak, she received her first Best Actress nominations at the Filmfare Awards South and SIIMA.
Expanding into Telugu cinema in 2018, Mandanna starred in the comedy drama Chalo, which follows a Tamil woman who becomes romantically involved with a Telugu man (played by Naga Shaurya) in a segregated village. She initially struggled with learning the new language and sought help from the film's assistant director who assisted her in improving her dialogue delivery. Reception to the film was mixed, but Hemanth Kumar of Firstpost commended Mandanna on a "terrific debut". Chalo emerged as her fourth consecutive box-office success in two years. Mandanna was next cast opposite Vijay Deverakonda in Venky Kudumula's romantic comedy Geetha Govindam. Made on a shoestring budget, the film became her first to cross ₹1 billion (US$13 million) at the domestic box-office, her highest-grosser at that point. Reviewers considered the chemistry between her and Deverakonda to be the highlight of an otherwise formulaic film. She earned the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress and gained a Best Actress nomination at the ceremony. Mandanna ended the year with the Telugu feature Devadas, in which reviewers for Sify and The Indian Express found her role in the film to be purely ornamental.
The Kannada social action film Yajamana (2019) the following year had a mixed reception from critics, with Film Companion's Karthik Keramalu highlighting the age gap between Mandanna and Darshan, who is 19 years her senior. Regardless, it proved to be another commercial success for Mandanna. She reunited with Deverakonda for the Telugu romantic drama Dear Comrade in the role of an aspiring cricket player who faces sexism within the sport. Sashidhar Adivi of Deccan Chronicle analysed that the role reflected a shift in Telugu cinema, where actresses were being given more substantial roles rather than serving purely as visual appeal. A departure from the previous lighthearted roles she had become accustomed to, Mandanna had to partake in five months of intensive physical training to accurately emulate a cricket player's body language. Despite high expectations following her previous collaboration with Deverakonda, Dear Comrade underperformed commercially. It also faced extensive criticism from audiences due to a scene featuring a kiss between the lead pair; In response, Mandanna stated that she was carrying out the demands of the script and that a sole scene should not dictate the entire film. She later professed that she struggled with the online backlash that followed the film's release despite its positive critical reception. Regardless, Yajamana and Dear Comrade won Mandanna Best Actress (Critics) awards at SIIMA in Kannada and Telugu, respectively, as well as additional Best Actress nominations in both languages at the ceremony.
She began the new decade opposite Mahesh Babu in the action comedy Sarileru Neekevvaru, which went on to become a top-grossing Telugu film. However, Sangeetha Devi Dundoo of The Hindu bemoaned that her role did not offer her adequate scope to perform as "all she gets to do is fawn over Mahesh". She then starred in the romantic comedy Bheeshma opposite Nithiin, in which Karthik Keramalu found her to continue her streak of featuring in ornamental roles. Still, the film was a commercial success at the box-office and earned Mandanna another nomination for Best Actress (Telugu) at Filmfare.
Career expansion and pan-Indian recognition (2021–present) In 2021, Mandanna starred opposite Dhruva Sarja in Pogaru, which Vivek M V of Deccan Herald termed "a riot of toxic masculinity". In her second release of the year, she made her debut into Tamil cinema opposite Karthi in the action drama Sulthan. She expressed that working across languages is important to her, seeing it as an opportunity to establish herself across industries. Though Hindustan Times' Haricharan Pudipeddi felt that Mandanna had been "sidelined", M Suganth of The Times of India praised her on a "charming debut". It emerged as a moderate commercial success. Mandanna said that her next film, the top-grossing Telugu action film Pushpa: The Rise starring Allu Arjun, was the most significant of her career. For her role as a girl involved in the smuggling syndicate of red sandalwood, she learnt the Chittoor dialect of Telugu with support from a tutor. Film Companion's Mukesh Manjunath found that she did her "best to imbue bubbliness and the innocence required in these testosterone-charged surroundings" but was unimpressed by the brown-facing of her character. The film marked a breakthrough in Mandanna's career as she earned pan-India recognition for the song "Saami Saami", which gained popularity. She received Best Actress nominations for her performance in the film at both SIIMA and Filmfare.
In 2022, Mandanna starred in a string of films that saw varying levels of success. These began with the unremarkable Telugu feature Aadavallu Meeku Johaarlu opposite Sharwanand. Keen to showcase her acting skills after a series of androcentric films, she took on her first supporting role in the romantic drama Sita Ramam starring Dulquer Salmaan and Mrunal Thakur. Citing it as one of her stronger films, Sangeetha Devi Dundoo appreciated that Mandanna is "given the scope to play a self-centred character" and showed that she is willing to take on roles of substance. For her performance, Mandanna received her first nomination for the Best Supporting Actress (Telugu) at Filmfare. The following month, Mandanna debuted into Hindi cinema with Vikas Bahl's family drama Goodbye, where she played a headstrong woman struggling with the aftermath of her mother's (played by Neena Gupta) death. She initially passed on the role as the character's dismissive views on religious rituals clashed with her own beliefs, but Bahl's confidence in her abilities ultimately convinced her. The film was an underwhelming financial venture. Renuka Vyavahare of The Times of India was unimpressed by Mandanna's Hindi diction but felt that she had still managed to retain the "essence" of her Punjabi character. She earned the Zee Cine Award for Best Female Debut for her performance.