Anushka Shetty: Breaking Stereotypes with Her Bold and Challenging Roles.

Sweety Shetty known by the name Anushka Shetty was born 7 November 1981, Mangalore, 

Karnataka to parents Prafulla and A. N. Vittal Shetty. She is an ethnic Tuluva Hailing from Bellipady village in Puttur taluk of Dakshina Kannada district. She did her Bachelor of Computer Applications from Mount Carmel College in Bangalore as her parents denied her from pursuing medicine. She learnt Yoga and became an instructor, trained under Bharat Thakur. Bharat Thakur was in association with director Puri Jagannadh who was looking for a second heroine in the movie Super starring actor and producer Nagarjuna in 2005. By then she was unaware of make ups and photo shoots. Director Puri recalls that she gave her passport size photos instead of photo stills when he met her for the first time in Mumbai. After the screen test and selection in Hyderabad, she was asked to change her screen name to Anushka. 

Though the movie was average Anushka’s performance was more recognised than Ayesha Takia. She then acted with Nagarjuna's nephew, Sumanth in Mahanandi. By 2006, she had four releases, the first being S. S. Rajamouli's Vikramarkudu, Astram, a remake of the 1999 Hindi film Sarfarosh, following which she debuted in the Tamil film industry, with Rendu, sharing screen with R. Madhavan. By then she was approached by Producer Shyam Prasad for the title role in Arundhati. Though people warned her that the filming of the film would take a lot of time, she believed in the script and did other films in between.

In 2007 she acted in Telugu movies Lakshyam, Don opposite Nagarjuna again. In 2008 she 

had appeared in six films, Okka Magaadu, Baladur, Souryam with Gopichand which became a box office hit. In 2009, the fantasy film Arundhati released and she went on to win the Nandi Special Jury Award and the Filmfare Best Actress Award. This was a hit even in its dubbed Tamil version. She then acted in Billa and Mirchi, with Prabhas. She even portrayed a prostitute role in Krish's anthology film Vedam, for which she won the Filmfare Award for Best Actress again. She even reprised her role in its Tamil remake, Vaanam (2011) and got busy with Tamil projects like Singam with Surya, Yennai Arindhaal with Ajith and Linga with Superstar Rajinikanth. She then did heroine centric films in Telugu like Panchakshari,  Nagavalli, Size zero. She also made special appearances in the movies Kedi and Thakita Thakita. 

She was then picked again by Rajamouli for his Magnum Opus Bahubali: The beginning. Though her role is limited in part-1, she did a period film, Rudhramadevi in which she portrays the title role of the queen of Kakatiya dynasty and she was referred to in the media as the "Lady Superstar". In the notable Telugu horror thriller film Bhaagamathie (2018), she played the characters Bhaagamathie and Chanchala. Then Baahubali 2:The Conclusion (2017) with her in the lead emerged as the second highest-grossing Indian film of all time and also made her the highest-paid actress in South Indian cinema. Many websites and film lovers wanted the pair Prabhas and Anushka to get married though Anushka is still looking for a suitable life partner. In May 2021, she signed for a film under the UV Creations banner. 

Anushka is known for her simplicity, down to Earth nature for picking up content based and her selection of noteworthy roles and stories.