Sushma Raj – South Indian film actress of ‘Maaya’ and ‘India Pakistan’ fame

Sushma Raj is a south Indian film actress who appears in Telugu, Kannada and Tamil films. She has done both lead and supporting roles. She made her impressive screen debut with Kannada sleeper hit Madarangi in 2013, and later worked in more than a half dozen films belonging to Tamil and Telugu languages. As a lead actress, she got her major break through the rom-com ‘India Pakistan’ in 2015. The movie was her debut Tamil film and for her lead role as a lawyer she was nominated at SIIMA Best Debut Actress (Tamil). Maaya, Eedu Gold Ehe, Joru and Nayaki are her Telugu releases.

Sushma Raj belongs to a Telugu family settled in Bangalore, and was born in 1991. She did a fashion designing course and started her career as a model. She got success as a model, and film offers came pouring in. Initially she was reluctant to accept acting roles. But her mother and friends pursued her to join film industry. Kannada film Madarangi was her first project, for which she shared screen space with TV artist turned film actor Krishna and another newcomer Kavya Shetty. The movie turned to be a surprise hit, and she started receiving more film offers.

Psychological thriller, Maaya released in 2014 marked her successful debut in Telugu cinema, and she later did three more Telugu films in a row. She played a supporting/negative role, the hyper active Poorna in Maaya, directed by National award winning film director Neelakanta. It was one of her major acting roles. Her Telugu movie Joru in a lead role flopped at box office.

In 2015 she made an impressive debut in Tamil with ‘India Pakistan’ opposite Vijay Antony. Despite the box office success of the film, she couldn’t get much offers from movies. In 2016 she appeared in Tamil-Telugu bilingual, Nayaki and her third Tamil project Jindhaa got delayed. Telugu movie, Eedu Gold Ehe (2016) was her last theater release.

Sushma Raj – Some interesting and less-known facts

A still from ‘India Pakistan’ Tamil movie

1. Her family originally hails from Andhra Pradesh, and later got settled in Bangalore, where Sushma grew up. Her parents moved to Bangalore soon after marriage.

2. She loved modeling and was not interested in acting initially. Acting roles came her way.

3. She did her first film Madarangi, while she was doing her graduation in fashion designing at Vasavi Institute of Management and Advanced Studies.

4. She attended auditions and also workshops before she was finalized for one of the break through roles in Maya.

Author’s note: Most recently I watched the Tamil movie, ‘India Pakistan’ where Sushma Raj played lead role. I strongly felt that she has close resemblance with south Indian star actress Anushka Shetty. But nowhere have I read similar comments. I may be totally wrong. Just sharing the thoughts. If you have felt the same, especially while watching ‘India Pakistan’, please share your thoughts below.