Avantika Shetty

Avantika Shetty was born in a Tulu-speaking Tuluva Bunt community in Mangalore. She made her big screen debut with debutante Anup Bhandari's directorial Kannada thriller-drama RangiTaranga (2015), playing the role of Sandhya Bhargav, a journalist on the search of a mysterious writer with the pen name Anashku played by another debutante, Nirup Bhandari. Upon release, the film was a sleeper hit which went onto become a blockbuster through the word-of-mouth reviews. The film was released across many countries and won favorable reviews. The film was declared as one of the highest-grossing films in Kannada cinema. Shetty earned a nomination at the Filmfare Awards for her portrayal as the supporting actress. Following this successful debut, she signed her second assignment for R. Anantharaju's forthcoming horror-comedy film Kalpana 2 opposite Upendra. A remake of Raghava Lawrence's successful Tamil film, Kanchana 2, Shetty reprises the role played by Tapsee Pannu in the original. She has reportedly teamed up yet again with the Bhandari brothers for their upcoming project titled Rajaratha which was unveiled on the Dancing Stars 3 reality show by actor V. Ravichandran.