Keerthy Suresh

Keerthy Suresh (born 17 October 1992) is an Indian actress who appears predominantly in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films. She is a recipient of various accolades including one National Film Award, four SIIMA Awards and a Filmfare Award South. Keerthy was placed in Forbes India's 30 Under 30 list of 2021.

Keerthy Suresh is the daughter of film producer G. Suresh Kumar and actress Menaka G. Suresh. She began her career as a child actress in the early 2000s and returned to films after studying fashion design. She had her first lead role in the 2013 Malayalam film Geethaanjali, for which she won SIIMA Award for Best Female Debut – Malayalam.

After winning SIIMA Award for Best Female Debut – Tamil for Idhu Enna Maayam (2015), Keerthy went on to star in successful south indian films such as Ring Master (2014), Nenu Sailaja (2016), Rajinimurugan (2016), Remo (2016), Bairavaa (2017), Nenu Local (2017), Sarkar (2018), Thaanaa Serndha Koottam (2018). Keerthy's portrayal of Savitri in the Telugu-language Mahanati (2018) earned her the Filmfare Award and National Film Award for Best Actress. Keerthy established herself as a leading actress with her performances in Penguin (2020), Miss India (2021), Rang De (2021), Good Luck Sakhi (2022), Sarkaru Vaari Paata (2022) and Dasara (2023).

Early life and background
Keerthy Suresh was born on 17 October 1992 in Madras, Tamil Nadu. Her father G. Suresh Kumar is a filmmaker of Malayali origin while her mother Menaka is an actress of Tamil origin. She has an elder sister Revathy Suresh. Until class four, Keerthy did her schooling in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. She then studied in Kendriya Vidyalaya, Pattom, Kerala before coming back to Chennai to join the Pearl Academy, where she completed her degree in fashion design. She also spent time on an exchange program in Scotland for four months, before completing a two-month internship in London. Despite making a career in acting, she has stated that she was also "seriously considering a career in designing". Keerthy also knows to play the violin.

Debut as child actress (2000–2005)
In the early 2000s, Keerthy worked as a child actress in a few of her father's productions, such as Pilots (2000), Achaneyanenikkishtam (2001) and Kuberan (2002) and some television serials.

Debut in Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu (2013–2017)
11 years after Kuberan, she made her debut as a lead actress in Priyadarshan's horror film Geethaanjali, in which she had a dual role. She was still studying during that time and shot for Geethanjali during her semester break. Reviews on the film and her performance were mixed, with Sify writing that she "does put in some effort but makes only a limited impression in a double role", while Rediff wrote that she "has got a plum role but whether she impresses with her acting prowess is another matter". In 2014, Keerthy had her next release Ring Master, directed by Rafi of Rafi Mecartin duo, in which she shared screen space with Dileep. She played a blind girl, which she said was much more challenging than her double role in Geethanjali. The film was a commercial success, being termed a "super hit" by Sify.

In 2015, Keerthy accepted her first projects outside of Malayalam and signed on to appear in several Tamil film projects simultaneously. Her first film release was A. L. Vijay's romantic comedy Idhu Enna Maayam (2015), opposite Vikram Prabhu, though the film did not perform well at the box office. Her busy schedule throughout 2015 meant that she had to opt out of films which she had already started working on, including Krishna's Maane Thaene Paeye and Deekay's Kavalai Vendam, in order to accommodate bigger projects. She consequently worked on two films with Sivakarthikeyan in quick succession, Rajinimurugan and Remo, while also playing the lead role in Prabhu Solomon's Thodari, alongside Dhanush.

Her Telugu debut was planned to be ''Ainaa Ishtam Nuvvu.  However, the film is delayed since 2015, with reports of release after September 2020 under a new title Janakitho Nenu.'' Subsequently, the debut was the 2016 film Nenu Sailaja with actor Ram Pothineni. In January 2017, Keerthy appeared in Bairavaa, opposite actor Vijay and directed by Bharathan. She also appeared in Tamil film Paambhu Sattai and Telugu film Nenu Local in 2017.

Mahanati and beyond (2018–present)


Her first release in 2018, was Agnyaathavaasi in Telugu. Her first Tamil film in 2018 was Thaanaa Serndha Koottam, in which she played opposite Suriya for the first time. The film opened to positive reviews and became a hit. She also acted in the Nag Ashwin-directed biographical drama Mahanati where she portrayed the late southern actress Savitri and for which her performance has received critical acclaim and the National Film Award for Best Actress. Her performance in the film featured in the list of "100 Greatest Performances of the Decade" by Film Companion.

In late 2018, she appeared in three consecutive commercial films, Saamy Square opposite Vikram directed by Hari, Sandakozhi 2 opposite Vishal directed by N. Lingusamy and Sarkar opposite Vijay, directed by AR Murugadoss. In mid-2019, she made a cameo appearance in the Nagarjuna starrer Manmadhudu 2, which was directed by Rahul Ravindran. In 2020, she appeared in the thriller film Penguin, which released on Amazon Prime due to the COVID-19 pandemic and in the drama film Miss India which released on Netflix.

In 2021, Keerthy starred in the Telugu language film Rang De opposite Nithiin. Keerthy's next film Annaatthe starring Rajinikanth directed by Siva opened to negative reviews but was a commercial success. Her next release was the Malayalam film Marakkar: Arabikadalinte Simham starring Mohanlal directed by Priyadarshan, which opened to mixed reviews became box office bomb.

Her first release of 2022 was the Telugu film Good Luck Sakhi which again opened to negative reviews and ended up as a commercial failure. Keerthy went on to appear alongside director Selvaraghavan in Saani Kaayidham, which marks the latter's acting debut. Her role went on to be critically acclaimed and is one of her best roles done by her. The film had a direct OTT release in Amazon Prime Video. Her next film was the Parasuram directorial Sarkaru Vaari Paata, alongside Mahesh Babu which was a commercial success. She was next seen in the Malayalam courtroom drama Vaashi opposite Tovino Thomas.

2023 opened for Suresh with 4 consecutive films, the Nani-starrer Dasara where she played the main lead opposite Nani and the film opened to positive reviews and performed well at the box office, the Mari Selvaraj directorial Maamannan, opposite Udhayanidhi Stalin which performed decently at the box office, the Chiranjeevi-starrer Bholaa Shankar, the remake of the Tamil movie, Vedalam (2015) which opened to negative reviews and became a box office disaster.

Keerthy Suresh has got the Jayamravi starrer Siren marking the first collaboration of the duo.

She will now enthrall the nation as a powerful woman in a Tamil film Raghuthatha by Hombale Films. She is also roped into a new woman centric film Revolver Rita which is coming to Netflix as a post-theatrical release. She is also set to appear in the solo film, Kanni Vedi in Tamil.

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Keerthy is known among the highest paid South Indian cinema actress, according to media reports. She was placed in Forbes India's "30 Under 30" list of 2021. Keerthy became the most tweeted about' South Indian actress in 2020 and 2021. Forbes India noted, "Keerthy has earned her stripes in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films, impressing with her spontaneity." Praising Keerthy, her director Nag Ashwin said, "She's a director's actor and an instinctive performer, quite natural. If fit in the right story and character, she is quite something." Keerthy has frequently featured in Hyderabad Times' 30 Most Desirable Woman list. She was placed 21st in 2018, 20th in 2019 and 26th in 2020. She is a celebrity endorser for brands such as Jos Alukkas, Usha International and Reliance Trends.