Kriti Sanon

Kriti Sanon (born 27 July 1990) is an Indian actress who works mainly in Hindi films. She began her career in Telugu cinema opposite Mahesh Babu in 1: Nenokkadine (2014), and went on to win a National Film Award and two Filmfare Awards. Her performance as a surrogate mother in Mimi (2021) is regarded as the turning point of her career. She appeared on Forbes India’s Celebrity 100 list in 2019.

Early life and education

Sanon was born in New Delhi. Her mother, Geeta Sanon, is a physics professor at the University of Delhi, and her father, Rahul Sanon, is a chartered accountant. Her younger sister, Nupur Sanon, is also an actress. She attended Delhi Public School, R. K. Puram, and earned a Bachelor of Technology in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering from the Jaypee Institute of Information Technology, Noida, before working briefly as a model.

Debut in Telugu and Hindi

Her first film was 1: Nenokkadine, a Telugu psychological action thriller in which she played the love interest of Mahesh Babu’s character. The role included action scenes shot at sea, which she later said made her nervous because she could not swim. Reviewers were encouraging about her work.

After the first schedule of that film, she signed on for the Hindi action film Heropanti opposite the newcomer Tiger Shroff, and worked on both films at the same time. Heropanti was a commercial success and won her the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut and the IIFA Award for Star Debut of the Year – Female. Her second Telugu film followed in 2015: the crime drama Dohchay, opposite Naga Chaitanya.

Building a Hindi career

Rohit Shetty’s action comedy Dilwale (2015) became one of the highest-grossing Indian films of its time, though critics were unimpressed. Raabta (2017), her first film with the producer Dinesh Vijan, failed commercially, but her role as a headstrong small-town woman in the romantic comedy Bareilly Ki Barfi (2017) was better received.

In 2019 she had a commercial success with the comedy Luka Chuppi, where one critic singled out her comic timing, and appeared in Housefull 4, which was one of the year’s biggest grossers despite poor reviews. The same year she played Parvatibai in Ashutosh Gowariker’s period drama Panipat, which was a box-office bomb.

Mimi

Mimi, a remake of the Marathi film Mala Aai Vhhaychy!, cast her in the title role of an aspiring actress who becomes a surrogate mother. She gained 15 kg for the pregnancy scenes. The film was released digitally, and while critics were generally lukewarm about it, her performance was widely praised, with one outlet calling it a career-best. It won her the National Film Award and the Filmfare Award for Best Actress.

Ups and downs

A series of commercially unsuccessful films followed, among them the controversial mythological film Adipurush (2023), shot in Hindi and Telugu with Prabhas. The exception was the horror comedy Bhediya (2022), in which she had a brief role. She returned to commercial success with the comedies Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya and Crew (both 2024) and the romantic drama Tere Ishk Mein (2025).

Business ventures

Alongside acting, Sanon endorses a number of brands. She has launched the clothing line Ms. Taken, the fitness company The Tribe and the skin-care brand Hyphen, and she runs her own production company, Blue Butterfly Films.

Sources: Wikipedia and Wikidata.