Ritu Varma


Ritu Varma is an Indian film actress who mainly works in Telugu and Tamil cinema. She is best known for her performance in the short film Anukokunda and the movie Pelli Choopulu, which elevated her into overnight fame. She received Nandi Award for Best Actress and Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress – South for her performance in Pelli Choopulu.

Early life

Ritu Varma was born and brought up in Hyderabad. Her parents are from Madhya Pradesh and she speaks Hindi at home. She did her intermediate from Villa Marie College for Women, Hyderabad and holds a bachelor's degree in engineering from Malla Reddy Engineering College. After completing her graduation, she took part in the Miss Hyderabad Beauty pageant and was declared the first runner-up.

Career

Ritu Varma rose to fame with her performance in the short film Anukokunda. The short film won the Best Film award at the 48HR Film Project competition in 2012 and also fetched Ritu the Best Actor award. The short film was later screened at the Cannes Short Film Corner in 2013.
After her appearance in Anukokunda, she signed her first Telugu movie as a lead Prema Ishq Kaadhal in which she played the role of a costume designer opposite Sree Vishnu. Her next release was Naa Rakumarudu, which was followed by Yevade Subramanyam, for which she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress award at IIFA Utsavam. Her next release, Pelli Choopulu, was a romantic-comedy Telugu film starring Vijay Deverakonda. The film went on to be commercially successful and won the Best Feature Film in Telugu at the 64th National Film Awards as well as the Filmfare Award for Best Film - Telugu. She received critical praise for her performance and eventually won the Nandi Award for Best Actress and Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress - Telugu for her performance.
Her next release was Keshava along with Nikhil Siddharth. She did an advertisement for Amazon Pongal 2017 alongside Aari. Impressed with her performance in Pelli Choopulu, director Gautham Menon chose her as the lead in his upcoming Tamil flick with Vikram, Dhruva Natchathiram. She was roped in to play the leading role in Desingh Periyasamy's Tamil-language romantic film Kannum Kannum Kollaiyadithaal alongside Dulquer Salmaan, which released in 2020 and went on to be commercially successful and critically acclaimed. She was later roped in opposite Nani in Tuck Jagadish, marking the second collaboration between the two actors since 2015's Yevade Subramanyam.

Filmography

YearFilmRoleLanguageNotes
2013BaadshahPinkyTelugu
2013Prema Ishq KaadhalSameeraTelugu
2014Naa RakumaruduBinduTelugu
2015Yevade SubramanyamRiyaTelugu
2016Pelli ChoopuluChitraTeluguNandi Award for Best Actress
Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress Telugu
2017KeshavaSathyabamaTelugu
2017Velaiilla Pattadhari 2AnithaTamil
2020Kannum Kannum KollaiyadithaalJessie / Meera / Madhumitha / IshitaTamil
2020Dhruva NatchathiramAnupamaTamilFilming
2020ChinaTamilPost-Production
2020Tuck JagadishTeluguFilming
2020Untitled movie with SharwanandTeluguFilming

Awards and nominations