Happy Birthday Anushka Shetty: From Arundhati to Size Zero, here’s a look at 5 impressive roles

Happy Birthday Anushka Shetty: The Bhaagamathie actor turns 36 years old today.

Anushka Shetty has worked mostly in Tamil and Telugu film industry. From the beginning of her career in 2005, till date, she has balanced her repertoire to include some fascinating films. In certain ways, she is also one of the first female actors in the industry who can carry the film on her own shoulders without depending on a bankable male actor to support her.

Anushka Shetty in Vedam, Size Zero and Baahubali 2.

The first film which had Anushka as its lead star and went on to become a massive success was horror film, Arundhati. She was barely four years into her career when she played a double role in the film. She went on to do films where she had an author-backed role and got acclaim for her performances.

This film became a massive success in Telugu, and almost resulted in her being typecast. Anushka, however, broke this mould easily enough. She has been a part of enough commercial films to become a huge star down south and has peppered her portfolio with gems like Deiva Thirumagal and Size Zero. Following are my favourite five films of Anushka (in order of release), which added essence to her body of work.

Arundhati - 2009

Arundhati, the film directed by Kodi Ramakrishna, saw Anushka play the role of Arundhati and Jejamma. The tale is about how Arundhati has to deal with her ancestor Jejamma’s enemy. The movie is a supernatural thriller, in which Anushka was recognised for her acting chops. The young Arundhati’s face-off with Pasupathi, who is back as an evil spirit to exact his revenge after many generations, was loved by the audience by and large.

Vedam / Vaanam - 2010 / 2011

Vedam was a multistarrer, but the star of this film has to be Saroja, the role played by Anushka. This film was later remade in Tamil and Anushka played the lead in this as well. Saroja was an intriguing character not just because she was a sex worker, but because of her carefree attitude even in the circumstances she lived. The story itself was an experimental try at slice-of-life drama, and Saroja’s part happened to be etched well.

Deiva Thirumagal - 2011

Deiva Thirumagal was one of the best films of Vikram and he even received accolades for his acting. To play the lead opposite someone like Vikram, and still win a state award is not an easy task. Anushka portrayed the role of the lawyer, Anuradha Raghunathan in the film. She plays the role of Krishna’s (Vikram) lawyer in the film as he fights his father-in-law for custody of his child. The fact that Krishna is disabled and the way Anuradha deals with this happened to be one of the highlights of this film.

Size Zero - 2015

Size Zero, the bilingual film had Anushka play the role of an obese Soundarya whose mother is looking out for prospective grooms every day. As she gets rejected by everyone, she meets Abhi (Arya) who is her polar opposite and decides to reject him. After she meets him a few times, she starts to have feelings for him, and in the meanwhile, Abhi starts dating a girl who is just like him. With all the barbs that she receives from her family and friends about being ‘fat’, she joins a studio that promises weight loss in no time. How Soundarya fights the society that body-shames her and manages to create awareness about the difference between being fit and healthy and being ‘slim’ is a great watch. The fact that Anushka decided to gain weight for this film and not use prosthetics was applauded by the audience.

Baahubali: The Conclusion - 2017

Anushka’s most recent outing, Baahubali: The Conclusion opposite Prabhas, got her nationwide fame. Her character, Yuvarani Devasena, became one of the most popular. The way she fought with a sword, the way she learned to knock three arrows on the bow from Amarendra, or her guts when she rejects the proposal from a big kingdom happened to be some of the best scenes in the film. Though she was a part of SS Rajamouli’s Baahubali 1, her role had more prominence in Baahubali 2.

Other than this, her films like Rudhramadevi and Thandavam also have her playing interesting characters. She will next be seen in Bhaagamathie, a bilingual thriller directed by G Ashok. And yet again, it looks like she is going to be the star driving this film. Her co-stars Jayaram, Unni Mukundan and Aadhi Pinisetty will play pivotal roles in the film.

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