Pooja Hegde

She began her career as a model and was crowned as the second runner-up at the 2010 I Am She–Miss Universe India pageant. She made her acting debut with the Tamil film Mugamoodi (2012) and had her first Telugu release in Oka Laila Kosam (2014). Hegde has established herself as one of the leading actresses in Telugu cinema.

Pooja Hegde
Hegde in 2022
Born	(1990-10-13) 13 October 1990 (age 33) Bombay, Maharashtra, India (present-day Mumbai)
Alma mater	M. M. K. College
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2012–present

Hegde won the SIIMA Award for Best Actress – Telugu for her performance in Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo (2020) and Most Eligible Bachelor (2021). She was nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Telugu for Oka Laila Kosam, Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo and Aravinda Sametha Veera Raghava (2018). Her other commercially successful films include Duvvada Jagannadham (2017), Maharshi (2019), Gaddalakonda Ganesh (2019) and Housefull 4 (2019). This was followed by a career setback as the 2022 films Radhe Shyam, Beast, Acharya and Cirkus, and the 2023 film Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan, were all poorly received.

Pooja Hegde was born on 13 October 1990 and brought up in Mumbai, Maharashtra in a Tulu-speaking Bunt family. Her parents are Manjunath Hegde and Latha Hegde. They are originally from Udupi, Karnataka. She also has an elder brother Rishabh Hegde, who is an orthopaedic surgeon. Besides Tulu, she is fluent in English, Hindi and Marathi. She later learnt Telugu following a career in her respective cinema. She did her schooling in Maneckji Cooper Education Trust School, Mumbai. She went to M. M. K. College, where she regularly participated in dance and fashion shows.

Hegde competed in the Miss India 2009 competition, but was eliminated in an early round despite winning the Miss India Talented 2009 honour. She re-applied the following year and was the second runner-up in the Miss Universe India 2010 competition.

Early work (2012–2017)

Hegde made her acting debut in Mysskin's Tamil superhero film Mugamoodi (2012) opposite Jiiva, portraying the female lead character of Shakthi, a fun-loving girl who inspires the male lead to change his outlook on society. She was selected after Mysskin had seen still photographs from her pageant success, and Hegde helped practice Tamil dialogue for the film by writing and memorising words in English, adding that the similarity between Tamil and her native tongue Tulu was also useful. Prior to release, the film garnered high expectations as a result of the novel theme of a superhero in Tamil films and the film took a grand opening at the box office in August 2012. Times of India stated that "Pooja Hegde though has little to do and comes across as just another pretty face." NDTV wrote "Pooja Hegde, the debutante may have floored everyone with her amiable appearance, but she definitely needs some coaching in expressions." She earned a nomination for the Best Tamil Female Debut Actress at the 2nd South Indian International Movie Awards.

 

Hegde's second film release, the Telugu film Oka Laila Kosam (2014), featured her opposite Naga Chaitanya. She was praised for her performance in the movie. Around the same time, she was nominated for Best Actress at the 62nd Filmfare Awards (South). Following a production house and the success of the director Vijay Konda's previous venture, had prompted her to work on the project. She undertook Telugu lessons to help her portray the leading female role. Her second Telugu film, Mukunda, was a romantic-action tale, set in the backdrop of a village, released in late 2014.

In July 2014, Hegde agreed terms to make her Bollywood debut opposite Hrithik Roshan in Ashutosh Gowariker's period film Mohenjo Daro, set against the backdrop of the Indus Valley civilisation. She was selected after Gowariker's wife had spotted her in an advertisement and called her to audition, which she successfully completed. As a result of her commitment to the film, she revealed that she would take a break from appearing in regional Indian movies until her Hindi film's release and rejected an opportunity to work in a film directed by Mani Ratnam. Mohenjo Daro released in 2016. On her performance, Lisa Tsering of The Hollywood Reporter wrote she "brings a forgettable blandness to her sparsely sketched role." Writing for IndiaTimes, Shubha Shetty Saha wrote, "Pooja Hegde is pretty and makes quite a confident debut." and became major box office flop. In 2017, she appeared in Telugu-language vigilante action comedy film Duvvada Jagannadham alongside actor Allu Arjun. Writing for The Indian Express, Manoj Kumar R found that "Pooja Hegde has convincingly done the given job that is to look stunning in every frame of the film. Especially, she looks ravishing in all the song sequences." The film was successful in box office grossing over ₹150 crore.

Commercial success and fluctuations (2018–present)

In 2018, Hegde featured in three Telugu films. The first is a special appearance in the song "Jigelu Rani" for the period action Rangasthalam. The song was trending in the YouTube and she was praised for her performance. Later in Saakshyam, alongside Bellamkonda Sreenivas and Trivikram Srinivas-directed action-drama Aravinda Sametha Veera Raghava, opposite Jr. NTR. The film received positive response and was a blockbuster. Haricharan Pudipeddi of News18 opined that "Pooja Hegde gets a meaty part and she deserves praise" for it. Writing for India Today, Janani K found "she has done a commendable job" in it. In 2019 too, she made an appearance in three films which are Maharshi, Gaddalakonda Ganesh and Housefull 4. Maharshi is a Telugu film directed by Vamsi Paidipally co-starring by Mahesh Babu. It received mixed reviews on release. The film was awarded the Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment at the 68th National Film Awards. Her second Telugu film in the same year was the Harish Shankar-directed Gaddalakonda Ganesh, a remake of the 2014 Tamil-language film Jigarthanda, featuring Varun Tej and Atharvaa along with her. The film received positive reviews. Praising her performance, Firstpost's Hemanth Kumar wrote "Pooja Hegde, who has played a key role, fits into her character quite well, and her chemistry with Varun Tej works quite well." Hegde returned to Bollywood after a gap of three years with Sajid Nadiadwala's comedy film Housefull 4 directed by Farhad Samji, featuring her as Rajkumari Mala and Pooja (reincarnated), which went on to gross over ₹296 crore worldwide.

 

Her 2020 Telugu-language action drama film Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo, alongside Allu Arjun and directed by Trivikram marks their collaboration with both Arjun and Trivikram, for the second time, after DJ: Duvvada Jagannadham (2017) and Aravinda Sametha Veera Raghava (2018). On her performance, a The Times of India critic wrote, "Pooja Hegde manages to bring in spunk into a character that is nothing more than a manic pixie dream girl, but she sure is a delight to watch on-screen." The film became third highest-grossing Telugu films of all time, grossing over ₹280 crore. Her performance fetched her several awards, including the SIIMA Award for Best Actress – Telugu. Hegde's dance performance in the song "Butta Bomma" received wide response.

In 2021, Hegde starred in Most Eligible Bachelor, directed by Bommarillu Bhaskar opposite Akhil Akkineni in which she played the role of a stand-up comedian. Her performance in the film received critical acclaim and won her the SIIMA Award for Best Actress – Telugu. In 2022, Hegde starred in the multilingual period romance film Radhe Shyam with Prabhas directed by Radha Krishna Kumar. Hegde's performance received positive reviews. The film's song "Aashiqui Aa Gayi" also gained more popularity among audiences with Hegde's grace and style being appreciated. Her second film in the same year was Tamil film Beast directed by Nelson, alongside Vijay. Released on 13 April, the film marked her return to Tamil cinema after a gap of 9 years. On her performance, Divya Nair of Rediff.com wrote, "Pooja Hegde looks pretty and does a decent job". Sowmya Rajendran of The News Minute opined "Pooja is gorgeous in 'Arabic Kuthu'". Hegde's #ArabicKuthuChallenge went viral in social media, and many recreated her signature step. The film has worldwide collections of over ₹300 crore. Her next brief appearance was in the Koratala Siva-directed film Acharya alongside Chiranjeevi and Ram Charan. These three films were commercial failures. She performed her second dance number in the film, F3 alongside Venkatesh and Varun Tej in the party song "Life Ante Itta Vundaala". Her last release in 2022 was Hindi film Cirkus directed by Rohit Shetty where she played one of the female leads opposite Ranveer Singh. The film was a commercial failure.

In 2023, she starred opposite Salman Khan in Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan, directed by Farhad Samji. The film was released coinciding with the Eid festival. Ronak Kotecha of The Times of India, wrote, "Pooja Hegde has a meaty role, which she pulls off confidently, but could have dialed down over-the-top filmy antics." The film also underperformed commercially and was Hedge's fifth consecutive box-office bomb.

Hegde will next star opposite Shahid Kapoor in Deva, a Hindi action thriller film from filmmaker Rosshan Andrews, and in Sajid Nadiadwala's Sanki, opposite Ahan Shetty.

 

Hegde is considered among the most popular actor of Telugu cinema. She stood at the 7th place on Forbes India's Most Influential Stars on Instagram in South Cinema for the year 2021. Nikita Sawant of Femina noted, "Hegde has a refreshing charm about her, and also has some serious acting chops."

Hegde has frequently featured in Times' Most Desirable Woman list. She was the Hyderabad Times' Most Desirable Woman of 2017. In the same list, she stood 5th in 2019 and 3rd in 2020. She is an active endorser for several brands and products including Citra, pTron and Garnier.

Hegde supports various causes through her foundation "All About Love", which works towards providing support to unprivileged children across the country in the areas of education and health. She said, "All About Love is just a small way of giving back to the society. I am extremely grateful to the people for putting me in a position where I can make a difference to someone's life today." In 2020, she donated ₹2.5 million (US$31,000) to Cure Foundation. In October 2017, she agreed to pay complete medical expenses of two kids at Tata Memorial Centre. During the COVID-19 pandemic in India, she gave ration kits to 100 families.