Lakshmi Rai, professionally credited as Raai Laxmi, is an Indian actress and model who predominantly works in

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

, Telugu,

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

and

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

languages.

Early life

Raai Laxmi was born in

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

, Karnataka to Ram Rai and Manjula Rai. Her family relocated to

Belgaum Belgaum (Kannada ISO 15919, ISO: ''Bēḷagāma'', ), officially known as Belagavi (also Belgaon), is a city in the Indian state of Karnataka located near its northern western border in the Western Ghats. It is the administrative headquarters ...

Acting career

Early career (2005–2010)

In 2005, Laxmi made her film debut in the Tamil-language film '' Karka Kasadara''. Subsequently, she appeared in a number of Tamil films, including the comedy film '' Kundakka Mandakka'' (2005) opposite R. Parthiban,

Perarasu Perarasu (born 8 January 1967) is an Indian film director who works primarily in Tamil cinema and is best known for masala films with Vijay and Bharath. Perarasu has also been credited as an actor, music director, singer and lyricist in some ...

's action-masala flick '' Dharmapuri'' (2006) and the romance film '' Nenjai Thodu'' (2007). ''

Valmiki Valmiki (; , ) was a legendary poet who is celebrated as the traditional author of the epic ''Ramayana'', based on the attribution in the text itself. He is revered as ''Ādi Kavi'', the first poet, author of ''Ramayana'', the first epic poe ...

'' (2005), opposite

Shiva Rajkumar Dr.Shiva Rajkumar (born Nagaraju Shiva Puttaswamy; 12 July 1962) is an Indian actor, film producer and television presenter who predominantly works in Kannada cinema. In a career spanning over three decades, he has worked in over 125 films in Ka ...

, marked her maiden film in Kannada. In 2008, she began working in more serious films such as the drama film '' Velli Thirai'', in which she played herself, and the action thriller '' Dhaam Dhoom'', directed by Jeeva. She received positive feedback for her portrayal of a lawyer in the latter. A review from ''Behindwoods'' wrote: "The latter (Raai Laxmi) sizzles even as she is supposed to play the court professional who is caught in the web of smuggling drugs". She won her first

Filmfare Award The Filmfare Awards are annual awards that honour artistic and technical excellence in the Indian cinema.Al The Filmfare ceremony is one of the most famous film events in India. The awards were introduced by Filmfare magazine of The Time ...

nomination in the Best Supporting Actress category. She made her debut in Malayalam in 2007, starring in '' Rock n' Roll'', opposite

Mohanlal Mohanlal Viswanathan (; born 21 May 1960), known mononymously as Mohanlal, is an Indian actor and filmmaker who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema, Malayalam cinema besides also having sporadically appeared in Tamil cinema, Tamil, Hin ...

. She followed it up with several successful films such as '' Annan Thampi'' (2008), '' 2 Harihar Nagar'' (2009), '' Evidam Swargamanu'' (2009) opposite

, and '' Chattambinadu'' (2009) opposite

Mammootty Muhammad Kutty Panaparambil Ismail (born 7 September 1951), known mononymously by the hypocorism Mammootty (), is an Indian actor and film producer who works predominantly in Malayalam-language films. He has also appeared in Tamil, Telugu, ...

. She appeared in three Tamil films in 2009, '' Muthirai'', '' Vaamanan'' and '' Naan Avanillai 2''. In '' Vaamanan'' (2009), she played a glamorous supermodel. In 2010, she was seen in three films. She made special appearances during song sequences in two of them, '' In Ghost House Inn'' and '' Pen Singam'' and portrayed a cowgirl in the Tamil film '' Irumbukkottai Murattu Singam''.

Public recognition and success (2011–2014)

Laxmi's first 2011 release was '' Christian Brothers''. Her next two films were Tamil projects, the comedy horror '' Kanchana'' and the

Venkat Prabhu Venkat Kumar Gangai Amaren (born 7 November 1975), better known by his stage name Venkat Prabhu, is an Indian film director, actor and playback singer in Tamil cinema. In addition, he also worked in Telugu cinema, Telugu Cinema. After completing ...

-directed action thriller '' Mankatha'', starring

Ajith Kumar Ajith Kumar Subramaniam (born 1 May 1971) is an Indian actor who works predominantly in Tamil cinema. To date, he has starred in over 63 films, and won four Vijay Awards, three Cinema Express Awards, three Filmfare Awards South and three Ta ...

. She played a negative character in the latter, which was received positively by critics. Following ''Kanchana'' success, she was signed on to reprise the role in its Kannada remake, '' Kalpana'' (2012). Her 2014 films were '' Irumbu Kuthirai'', '' Aranmanai'' in Tamil and '' RajadhiRaja'' in Malayalam.

Recent work (2016–present)

In 2016, she signed two Tamil films, '' Bangalore Naatkal'' and '' Sowkarpettai''. After a brief gap, she performed her second item number opposite

Pawan Kalyan Konidela Pawan Kalyan (born Konidela Kalyan Kumar; 2 September 1971) is an Indian politician, actor, philanthropist, and martial artist serving as the List of deputy chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh, 11th Deputy Chief Minister of Andhra Prade ...

in his Telugu film '' Sardaar Gabbar Singh'' (2016). She debuted in the

film '' Akira''. She signed to perform her fourth item number with Chiranjeevi in his 150th film '' Khaidi No. 150'' (2017), and later in '' Motta Shiva Ketta Shiva'' (2017) in Tamil with

Raghava Lawrence Raghava Lawrence (born Lawrence Murugaiyan) is an Indian actor, choreographer, film director, composer, playback singer, lyricist, film producer and philanthropist known for his works primarily in Tamil cinema. After making his debut as a dance ...

. Raai Laxmi portrayed the lead role in her second Hindi film '' Julie 2'' (2017). In 2018, she made her comeback to Malayalam cinema with the

starrer '' Oru Kuttanadan Blog''. In 2019, she starred in horror movies '' Where Is the Venkatalakshmi'' in Telugu then ''

Neeya 2 ''Neeya 2'' () is a 2019 Indian Tamil romance film, romantic horror film written and directed by L. Suresh and produced by Sridhar Arunachalam under the banner of Jumbo Cinemas. The film stars Jai (actor), Jai in a dual role, alongside Catherine ...

'' in Tamil that were failures. She also starred in the Bollywood film, '' Officer Arjun Singh IPS Batch 2000''. In 2021, she starred in the Tamil horror movie ''

Cinderella "Cinderella", or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a Folklore, folk tale with thousands of variants that are told throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988. The protagonist is a you ...

''.

Filmography

Film

*''Note: She was credited as Lakshmi Rai until 2014.''

Television

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Laxmi, Raai 21st-century Indian actresses Actresses from Karnataka Actresses in Hindi cinema Actresses in Kannada cinema Actresses in Malayalam cinema Actresses in Malayalam television Actresses in Tamil cinema Actresses in Telugu cinema Gujarati people Indian film actresses Indian television actresses Living people People from Belgaum South Indian International Movie Awards winners Year of birth missing (living people)