Ritika Singh

Ritika Mohan Singh is an Indian actress and former mixed martial artist who predominantly features in Tamil films, in addition to Hindi, Telugu and Malayalam films. After competing for India at the 2009 Asian Indoor Games and then participating in the Super Fight League, she played a leading role in Sudha Kongara Prasad's Tamil film Irudhi Suttru (also simultaneously shot in Hindi as Saala Khadoos) alongside R. Madhavan. She won Special Mention at the 63rd National Film Awards for her performance in the film. She received Filmfare Awards three times for the same role in three languages: Tamil (Irudhi Suttru), Hindi (Saala Khadoos) and Telugu (Guru). She has won a National Award, one SIIMA award, one Tamil Nadu State Film Award special Prize and three Filmfare Awards (2 Filmfare Award South and 1 Filmfare Award) respectively.

Mixed martial arts career
Singh trained as a kickboxer and as a mixed martial artist since childhood, under the guidance of her father. She appeared in the inaugural season of the Super Fight League and competed as a mixed martial artist.

Acting career
Ritika Singh began her acting career in 2013. She was spotted by director Sudha Kongara Prasad in an advertisement for the Super Fight League, and she later auditioned to play a leading role in her bilingual film, Irudhi Suttru (2016), titled Saala Khadoos in Hindi, after the makers managed to contact her through the competition's chairman, Raj Kundra. Portraying Madhi, a Marwari girl who grows up in the slums of Chennai, Singh was signed because the makers wanted a professional boxer to act, rather than an actress to act as a boxer. For the Tamil version, Irudhi Suttru, Singh phonetically learned her part in Tamil by writing down the dialogues in Hindi. Co-produced by the film's lead actors, R. Madhavan and Rajkumar Hirani, the film was released in late January 2016. Ritika received rave reviews for her portrayal, with Sify.com stating "she is a marvelous discovery" and "her lip sync, body language, and gait are major highlights for the film". For her performance in Irudhi Suttru, Ritika won the Special Mention at the 63rd National Film Awards and became the first actress who did not dub for her role to be recognised at the National Awards. Singh later appeared in Manikandan's Aandavan Kattalai, which was released in September 2016. Her next film is the Telugu movie Guru (2017), a remake of Irudhi Suttru. Later, she performed in the horror comedy P. Vasu's Shivalinga (2017) and the Telugu movie Neevevaro (2018).

In 2020, she played the female protagonist in the film Oh My Kadavule with Ashok Selvan and Vani Bhojan.