Sanya Malhotra (born 25 February 1992) is an Indian actress who works in Hindi films. She has had supporting roles in the sports film Dangal (2016) and the action film Jawan (2023), both of which rank among the highest-grossing Indian films. Her other commercially successful films were the comedy Badhaai Ho (2018) and the biopic Sam Bahadur (2023).
Malhotra was born on 25 February 1992 in Delhi into a Punjabi Hindu family.[1][2] She is a trained dancer in contemporary and ballet.[3] After graduating from Gargi College,[4] Malhotra participated in the dance reality show Dance India Dance and made it to the top 100.[5] She moved to Mumbai, where she began appearing in auditions and began assisting camerapersons for television commercials.[6] She was later contacted by the film casting director Mukesh Chhabra.[5]
Career
Early work and recognition (2016–2019)
Malhotra was selected for Nitesh Tiwari's biographical sports film Dangal along with Fatima Sana Shaikh, who was also relatively new.[3] Before the film, she said that she did not know much about wrestling. She then watched several videos on wrestling and "how wrestlers move, walk, their body language" and also did the training.[3] Both Malhotra and Sheikh went through five rounds of auditions, physical training and workshops with Tiwari and Aamir Khan.[6] They were trained by coach and former wrestler Kripa Shankar Patel Bishnoi.[6] Released in 2016, Dangal received critical acclaim and became the highest-grossing Indian film ever with earnings of more than ₹2,000 crore (US$230 million) worldwide.[7]Anupama Chopra said in her review that Malhotra provides "strong support" to the story.[8] Malhotra later choreographed the song "Sexy Baliye" for the Secret Superstar (2017), which featured Khan.[9]
Malhotra in 2019
Two years later, Malhotra starred in Vishal Bhardwaj's drama Pataakha (2018) alongside newcomer Radhika Madan.[10] Based on the short story Do Behnen by Charan Singh Pathik, it tells the story of two warring sisters in Rajasthan.[11] The story was based on the wives of Pathik's brothers.[11] To prepare for the film, both she and Madan met the real inspiration behind the characters to learn their nuances.[11] The two stayed in Ronsi village near Jaipur and learned the Rajasthani dialect; they also got accustomed to milking buffaloes, thatching roofs, plastering the walls with dung and walking for long distances while balancing matkas full of water on their head and another around their waist.[12] They also had to put on 10 kg of weight.[13] Critic Raja Sen found Malhotra to be a "fearless actress" and thought that she "plays this character with unhinged enthusiasm".[14] In the same year, she took on a supporting role in Amit Sharma's critically and commercially successful comedy Badhaai Ho, starring Ayushmann Khurrana.[15]
Malhotra's two films of 2020—the biographical film Shakuntala Devi and the black comedy Ludo—were initially planned for theatrical release. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India, they were released directly on Amazon Prime Video and Netflix respectively. Shakuntala Devi, directed by Anu Menon, is about the mathematician of the same name and starred Vidya Balan in the titular role, with Malhotra portraying Devi's daughter Anupama.[21] Mike McCahill of The Guardian found Malhotra to be "quietly affecting" in her part and commended her for holding her own opposite her co-star.[22]Anurag Basu's anthology film, Ludo, featured her alongside an ensemble cast.[23]India Today's Nairita Mukherjee took note of the "outstanding camaraderie" between Malhotra and her co-star Aditya Roy Kapur.[24] For her performance in Ludo, she received another nomination for the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress.[25]
In 2023, Malhotra had a starring role as a small-town cop in pursuit of a missing jackfruit in the Netflix satirical film Kathal.[34]Hindustan Times's Monika Rawal Kukreja was appreciative of her comic timing.[35] Her performance earned her a Filmfare OTT Award for Best Actor in a Web Original Film (Female).[36] She next had a supporting role as a doctor in Jawan, an action film starring Shah Rukh Khan.[37] It ranks as one of Indian cinema's biggest grossers.[38] In her final release of the year, she played the wife of Sam Maneckshaw in the biopic Sam Bahadur, starring Vicky Kaushal in the title role.[39] Anuj Kumar of The Hindu reviewed, "Malhotra as his lovely, supportive wife Siloo proves equal to Vicky’s charm".[40] It was a modest commercial success.[41]
Tanisha Bhattacharya of Filmfare noted, "Malhotra has made a career out of seeking content-centric films. She has wowed the audience with her natural performance."[44] Shilpa Dubey of Femina stated, "Contradicting the cookie-cutter style big-screen debuts, her onset in Bollywood was a refreshing game-changer in Dangal."[45] Malhotra ranked 3rd in Rediff.com's "The 10 Best Actresses" list of 2021.[46] She is an endorser for several brands and products including Fastrack and Shoppers Stop.[47][48]
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