Mrunal Thakur

Mrunal Thakur (born 1 August 1992) is an Indian actress who predominantly works in Hindi, Telugu and Marathi films. She began her acting career with the television soap operas Mujhse Kuchh Kehti...Yeh Khamoshiyaan (2012) and Kumkum Bhagya (2014–2016). For the latter, Thakur won the Indian Television Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

Thakur made her Hindi film debut with Love Sonia (2018) and gained recognition with the 2019 biographical films Super 30 and Batla House. Following a series of poorly received Hindi films, she achieved success with the Telugu romantic dramas Sita Ramam (2022) and Hi Nanna (2023). For the former, she won two SIIMAs and a Filmfare Award South.

Early life
Mrunal Thakur was born on 1 August 1992 to a Marathi-speaking family in Dhule, Maharashtra. She attended St. Joseph's Convent School, Jalgaon, and Vasant Vihar High School, near Mumbai. Thakur left KC College without graduating as she was pursuing a television career at the time.

Early career and television (2012–2014)
While attending college, Thakur landed a lead role as Gauri Bhosle opposite Mohit Sehgal in the Star Plus series Mujhse Kuchh Kehti...Yeh Khamoshiyaan. The show aired from 2012 to 2013. Later in 2013, Thakur appeared in an episodic appearance on the mystery thriller Har Yug Mein Aayega Ek – Arjun, in which she played a journalist named Sakshi Anand.

In February 2014, Thakur was cast for Zee TV's soap opera Kumkum Bhagya, for which she began shooting the following month. The show, co-starring Sriti Jha, Shabir Ahluwalia, Arjit Taneja, and Supriya Shukla, started airing on 15 April, and saw Thakur portray Bulbul Arora Khanna, a woman who along with her elder sister (played by Jha) helps their mother (played by Shukla) run a marriage hall. The show received mostly positive to mixed reviews from critics. Thakur quit the show in January 2016.

Thakur appeared as a Contestant on Box Cricket League 1 in 2014 and Nach Baliye 7 in 2015. In 2016, she danced in a special episode of &TV's SauBhagyalaxmi and had a Guest appearance in Tuyul & Mbak Yul Reborn. Her final appearance before she retired from television was on the Indonesian serial Nadin, where she played Tara.

Expansion to Hindi films (2014–2021)
Thakur made her film debut with the Marathi film Vitti Dandu, which was released in 2014. She played Sandhya. Her next Marathi film was Surajya, where she played the role of Dr. Swapna. In 2016, Thakur began work on her first Hindi project, the international film Love Sonia, for which she stayed at Kolkata. The film was released in September 2018 after various delays and featured her in the titular role of a village girl who brings to light the issue of global human trafficking. For preparation, Thakur stayed at a brothel to study the body language of prostitutes. Although the film was generally well reviewed, it was a failure at the domestic box office.

Thakur's Bollywood debut came in 2019 with Vikas Bahl's biographical drama Super 30, narrating the story of mathematician Anand Kumar (played by Hrithik Roshan in the film) and his educational program of the same name, in which she portrayed Supriya, a classical dancer and Kumar's love interest. It emerged as a commercial success and one of the top-grossing Hindi films of 2019. In the same year, she played John Abraham's wife Nandita Kumar in Nikkhil Advani's Batla House, based on the 2008 Batla House encounter case. It grossed over inr 1110000000 worldwide becoming a commercially successful venture.

In 2020, Thakur appeared in a Netflix venture, the four-part anthology horror film Ghost Stories as Ira in the Segment: Karan Johar's segment. The same year she appeared in a music video "Gallan Goriya", alongside John Abraham.

In 2021, Thakur has starred in the sports drama, Toofaan, directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra and co-starring Farhan Akhtar, which premiered on 16 July 2021 on Amazon Prime Video in which her performance was praised. In addition, she co-starred in the action thriller Dhamaka, directed by Ram Madhvani and co-starring Kartik Aaryan and Amruta Subhash, which released on Netflix on 19 November 2021. She also appeared in two music videos in the year 2021, "Bad Boy x Bad Girl" with Badshah and "Aise Na Chhoro" with Guru Randhawa.

Expansion to Telugu films (2022–present)
Thakur's first film of 2022, Jersey, a remake of the 2019 Telugu film of the same name, co-starring Shahid Kapoor, released on 22 April 2022. The film received mixed reviews from critics, praising the performances, direction and soundtrack; it was a commercial failure at the box office. Thakur made her Telugu film debut co-starring Dulquer Salmaan and Rashmika Mandanna in Hanu Raghavapudi's period romantic drama Sita Ramam, which released on 5 August 2022. The film received positive reviews upon release and emerged as a success at the box-office, thus proving to be a breakthrough for her and she was praised for her portrayal.

Thakur had five releases in the year 2023. She starred opposite Aditya Roy Kapur in the Hindi film Gumraah, which was a remake of the 2019 Tamil film Thadam. The film underperformed commercially, becoming a box-office bomb. After this, she appeared opposite Angad Bedi in Netflix's Lust Stories 2. Thakur appeared opposite Abhimanyu Dassani and Paresh Rawal in the multi-starrer comedy Aankh Micholi. The film underperformed commercially, becoming a box-office bomb. Following this, she was paired with Ishaan Khatter in the war action film Pippa, which received mixed reviews from critics. In her final film of the year, Thakur appeared in Hi Nanna opposite Nani. The film and her performance received positive reviews from critics. Hi Nanna would become her only successful film of the year.

In 2024, Thakur played an entrepreneur Indu, in her third Telugu film, The Family Star opposite Vijay Deverakonda. The film received negative reviews from critics and was a flop in box office. Thakur will next appear in Maddock Films Pooja Meri Jaan alongside Huma Qureshi.

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The Telegraph finds Thakur to be "honest and heartwarming". On her choice of films, she said, "I just want to be associated with good scripts, to play woman of substance, and see what she's contributing to." Thakur ranked 8th in Eastern Eye's Top 30 under 30 Global Asian Stars List of 2021. In 2022, Thakur curated a food donation drive in collaboration with "All About Them", a foundation that helps stray and community animals. Thakur is a celebrity endorser for several brands and products, including Lakme and Dulux.

Television

 * All shows are in Hindi, unless otherwise mentioned