Anushka Shetty

Shetty made her acting debut in Puri Jagannath's 2005 Telugu film Super alongside Akkineni Nagarjuna. The same year, she acted in another film Mahanandi, which was an unsuccessful venture. In 2006, she had four releases, the first being S. S. Rajamouli's Vikramarkudu opposite Raviteja, in which she portrayed the character Neeraja Goswami. The film went on to become very successful and got her much recognition, that eventually made her very popular in Andhra Pradesh.

She next had 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 in A. R. Murugadoss' directorial debut in Telugu, Stalin.

Her first release in 2007 was Lakshyam, 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. Her subsequent 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.

Vaanam became her first 2011 release, which received positive critical response. A critic from Sify wrote that "Anushka is outstanding as the commercial sex worker as she is able to bring out a life-like performance." She next starred in A. L. Vijay's Deiva Thirumagal with Vikram. The drama centers on the characters of Krishna, a mentally retarded father and his daughter Nila. The film became a critical and commercial success, fetching her laurels for her portrayal as Anuradha, a advocate.

Anushka again co-starred in A. L. Vijay's action drama Thaandavam alongside Vikram and Amy Jackson. In The Hindu review film critic Malathi Rangarajan described her as "perfect ten for the choice of cast" and further stated that "the romance between Vikram and Anushka is a beautiful feature of Thaandavam. She then appeared alongside Akkineni Nagarjuna in Dhamarukam, a fantasy film. A critic from The Times of India said that Anushka "has little to do as far as performance goes and does a good job of upping the glam quotient.

She is currently filming for Selvaraghavan's Irandam Ulagam opposite Arya[20] and an action-masala film Alex Pandian, directed by Suraj, co-starring Karthi.[21] She is also acting in Koratala Siva's Mirchi opposite Prabhas. She has signed Gunashekar's bilingual Rani Rudrama Devi, which is set to start shooting in February 2013.