Biography

Pooja Hegde (born 13 October 1990) is an Indian actress and model who works predominantly in Telugu, Hindi, and Tamil cinema. She began her career in pageantry and was the second runner-up at the Miss Universe India 2010 competition before entering films. She made her acting debut in Mysskin's Tamil superhero film *Mugamoodi* (2012), followed by her Telugu films *Oka Laila Kosam* (2014) and *Mukunda* (2014). She made her Hindi-film debut in Ashutosh Gowariker's period film *Mohenjo Daro* (2016). Her subsequent Telugu and Hindi films include the action comedy *Duvvada Jagannadham* (2017), *Aravinda Sametha Veera Raghava* (2018), *Maharshi* (2019), *Gaddalakonda Ganesh* (2019), and the comedy *Housefull 4* (2019). She played Amulya in Trivikram Srinivas's *Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo* (2020), for which she received the SIIMA Award for Best Actress – Telugu, and received another SIIMA Award for Best Actress for *Most Eligible Bachelor* (2021). Her later films include the period romance *Radhe Shyam* (2022), Nelson Dilipkumar's action thriller *Beast* (2022), *Acharya* (2022), *Cirkus* (2022), and *Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan* (2023). Her filmography also includes the action thriller *Deva* (2025), Karthik Subbaraj's action drama *Retro* (2025), H. Vinoth's political action drama *Jana Nayagan* (2026), and the comedy-drama *Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai* (2026). She has received multiple SIIMA Awards and Filmfare nominations.