Sanya Malhotra

Sanya Malhotra, born February 25, 1992, in Delhi, is a dynamic Indian actress who has taken Hindi cinema by storm since 2016. A classically trained dancer and alumna of Gargi College, Malhotra's impactful career launched with a pivotal supporting role in the monumental 2016 sports film Dangal, one of the highest-grossing Indian films in history. She has since solidified her status with compelling performances in additional blockbusters, including the action epic Jawan (2023) and commercially triumphant films like the comedy Badhaai Ho (2018) and the biopic Sam Bahadur (2023), establishing her as a formidable and essential talent in the industry. The pandemic hit hard in 2020, forcing Malhotra's biographical drama Shakuntala Devi and Anurag Basu's ensemble black comedy Ludo from theatrical releases straight to streaming platforms Amazon Prime Video and Netflix, respectively. While Shakuntala Devi saw her as the daughter of the titular "human computer," critics like The Guardian's Mike McCahill praised her for a "quietly affecting" performance. In Ludo, her "outstanding camaraderie" with co-star Aditya Roy Kapur was singled out by India Today, earning her another Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress nomination. 2021 continued the streaming surge with Netflix releases: the black comedy Pagglait, where her portrayal of a young widow discovering infidelity was deemed "aptly cast" by critic Anna M. M. Vetticad, leading to a Best Actress nomination at the Filmfare OTT Awards. She followed this with the romantic comedy Meenakshi Sundareshwar, a film that unfortunately drew criticism for its stereotypical portrayal of Tamil culture. The thriller Love Hostel arrived in 2022 on ZEE5, with Rediff.com's Sukanya Verma noting how she and co-star Vikrant Massey "effortlessly convey the flavour of the world they inhabit." A smaller role in the thriller HIT: The First Case with Rajkummar Rao left reviewers lamenting her limited screen time. 2023 was a banner year, with all three of her releases clinching National Film Awards. She kicked it off as a small-town cop in the satirical Netflix film Kathal, where her comic timing was praised by Hindustan Times, earning her a Filmfare OTT Award for Best Actor in a Web Original Film (Female) and a National Film Award for Best Hindi Feature Film for the movie itself. Next, she played a doctor in the Shah Rukh Khan blockbuster Jawan, one of Indian cinema's biggest grossers. Her year concluded with Sam Bahadur, a biopic where she starred as the supportive wife of Vicky Kaushal's titular character, with The Hindu's Anuj Kumar commending her for matching Kaushal's charm, and the film itself snagged a National Film Award for Best Feature Film Promoting National, Social and Environmental Values. The drama Mrs., a Hindi adaptation of The Great Indian Kitchen, premiered at the 2024 Indian Film Festival of Melbourne before its 2025 ZEE5 release, with Malhotra drawing unanimous acclaim for her performance, matching Nimisha Sajayan's in the original according to Sukanya Verma. Her 2025 slate included Shashank Khaitan's romantic comedy Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari, where despite WION's Shomini Sen feeling she and co-star Rohit Saraf lacked scope, Hindustan Times' Rishabh Suri lauded her for salvaging a poorly written character, though the film ultimately failed commercially. Malhotra reunited with Rajkummar Rao for the 2026 Netflix comedy Toaster, a tale of a lost wedding gift, but The Indian Express's Shubhra Gupta declared it "dull constructed slop" that even the lead pair couldn't rescue.