Sweety Shetty (born 7 November 1981), known by her stage name Anushka Shetty, is an Indian actress and model who predominantly works in Telugu and Tamil films. She is the recipient of Three Filmfare Awards South, Two Nandi Award, Two SIIMA Awards and One Tamil Nadu State Film Award. Having appeared in 47 films, she is one of the highest-paid South Indian actresses and is popularly referred as Lady Superstar of South Indian cinema.
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. Her further releases Lakshyam (2007), Souryam (2008), and Chintakayala Ravi (2008) were also box office successes. 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. While Baahubali: The Beginning (2015) is the seventh highest-grossing Indian film, its sequel Baahubali 2:The Conclusion (2017) is the second highest-grossing Indian film of all time and also made her the highest-paid actress in South Indian cinema.
Early life and education :
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.[when?] 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.
