Kriti Kharbanda

Kriti Kharbanda is an Indian film actress and model who appears in Kannada and Telugu films. Born in New Delhi and brought up in Bengaluru, she worked as a commercial model before making her acting debut in the 2009 Telugu film Boni.

Early life

Kriti Kharbanda was born in New Delhi into a Punjabi family. She moved to Bengaluru in the 90s with her parents, where she grew up and had her education. After completing her high school education in Baldwin Girls High School, she attended Bishop Cotton Women's Christian College before graduating from Sri Bhagawan Mahaveer Jain College. She holds a diploma in jewel designing. According to herself, she was very active in cultural activities during school and college.

As a child, she had featured in a number of advertisements and she did continued modelling during her college days, stating that she "always loved doing TV commercials". She was a model for Bhima Jewellers, Spar and Fair and Lovely. Her photo on the Spar billboard caught the attention of NRI director Raj Pippala, who was looking for a heroine for his film, and paved the way for her acting career. She has said that she had no plans of becoming an actress and that it was "because of my mom that I turned to acting".

Career

After seeing her on the Spar billboard, Raj Pippala contacted Kriti and she was selected as the female lead for his Telugu film Boni from 150 girls who attended the audition. Boni received negative reviews and fetched Kriti mixed response regarding her performance. While Sify wrote, "Krithi was a good choice and she had no tense moments despite her debut. Her looks are gorgeous and she has a lot of future if she plays her cards correctly", Rediff wrote, "Krithi Kharbanda looks fresh and pretty and manages to play the part of Pragati in a fairly convincing way. She may have to work on her expressions a bit in future, though". Although the film was unsuccessful at the box office, she landed a prominent role in the Pawan Kalyan film Teen Maar. Her next release, however, was her debut Kannada film, Chiru. Her performance was mostly well received, with The Times of India writing that she "excels in her performance" and Indiaglitz.com stating that she "is very pretty and her expressions are good" while IANS wrote that she "looks ravishing in song sequences" and "is good at dancing, but needs to improve her acting skills". The film was a hit at the box office in 2010, and Kriti has stated that it got her recognition and "a fair amount of admiration in the industry", resulting in her being offered numerous projects in Kannada. However, she took a long time to sign her second Kannada film, until October 2011, when she signed up for four films in a single month.

2011, she was first seen in a guest role in the successful Telugu romantic comedy Ala Modalaindi, before Teen Maar released. She appeared in "retro scenes" in Teen Maar in which she had to "replicate heroines from the 70s" and revealed that she also chose the costumes and jewellery she wore in the film. The film turned out to be an average grosser. The next year she acted in Mr. Nookayya alongside Manoj Manchu in Telugu and in Prem Adda, a remake of the Tamil film Subramaniapuram, in Kannada. The latter film featured her in a "completely de-glam" role, with the actress stating that her fair complexion posed a problem to her as she played a small town girl in the 80s. She called Girija the most challenging character she had played till then since it required her to wear no makeup, get a tan and walk barefoot to attain "a raw look" needed for the role. For the film, she also designed the costumes along with her mother. She had four releases in 2013, two in each Telugu and Kannada. Both her Telugu films, Bhaskar's Ongole Githa, that saw her playing a "typical town girl", and Kalyan Ram's Om 3D, touted to be the first 3D action film in Telugu cinema, were box office failures. Her last release that year was the romance flick Googly. Her portrayal of a medical student was lauded by critics. Sify, in particular, praised Kriti, calling her "The heart and soul of the movie...who with her cute looks, emerges triumphant on the big screen with some fine acting". The film went on to collect INR 15 crore at the box office, emerging one of the highest-grossing Kannada films in 2013.

Following Googly's success, she became a sought-after actress in Kannada cinema. As of June 2014, she had over half-a-dozen upcoming films including Sanju Weds Geetha-2 which will see her playing a blind character, Superro Ranga starring Upendra, Belli, in which she is paired with Shivarajkumar, Thirupathi Express, a remake of the Telugu flick Venkatadri Express, Minchagi Neenu Baralu opposite Diganth and Dalapathy starring Nenapirali Prem

Galleries of Kriti Kharbanda