Kriti Sanon

Kriti Sanon is an Indian actress and producer who works mainly in Hindi films and is known for combining mainstream romantic comedies with performance-driven roles.^[1] Born in New Delhi on 27 July 1990, she trained as an engineer, worked briefly as a fashion model and made her acting debut in 2014 with the Telugu thriller 1: Nenokkadine and the Hindi action film Heropanti, which brought her the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut.^[1] She went on to star in the romantic comedies Bareilly Ki Barfi (2017) and Luka Chuppi (2019), and her highest-grossing releases came with the ensemble comedies Dilwale (2015) and Housefull 4 (2019).^[1]

Her career-defining role was the title character in Mimi (2021), a surrogate mother, which won her the Filmfare Award for Best Actress and a National Film Award for Best Actress, shared with Alia Bhatt for Gangubai Kathiawadi.^[1] After a run of unsuccessful films, including the expensive mythological film Adipurush (2023), she returned to success with Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya and Crew (both 2024) and Tere Ishk Mein (2025).^[1] She is also a businesswoman, with a clothing line (Ms. Taken), a fitness company (The Tribe), the skincare brand Hyphen and the production company Blue Butterfly Films.^[1]

In 2026 she starred in the romantic comedy Cocktail 2 with Shahid Kapoor and Rashmika Mandanna, released in June, and on 14 October 2026 it was reported that she will headline an untitled horror film from Maddock Films, her ninth collaboration with the production house.^[1][5]

Kriti Sanon was born on 27 July 1990 in New Delhi into a Punjabi Hindu family.^[1] Her mother, Geeta Sanon, is a physics professor at the University of Delhi, and her father, Rahul Sanon, is a chartered accountant.^[1] Her younger sister, Nupur Sanon, is also an actress, and in January 2026 Nupur married the singer Stebin Ben.^[1][10]

She attended Delhi Public School, R. K. Puram, and then earned a Bachelor of Technology degree in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering from the Jaypee Institute of Information Technology in Noida.^[1] After college she worked briefly as a model before moving into acting, and she has said that her modelling days included difficult moments, such as being publicly shouted at by a choreographer.^[1]

Her acting debut came in 2014 in 1: Nenokkadine, a Telugu psychological thriller in which she played the love interest of Mahesh Babu's character; she has said she was nervous about the film's action scenes at sea because she did not know how to swim.^[1] After the first schedule of that film she was signed for Heropanti, a Hindi action film opposite the newcomer Tiger Shroff, and she divided her time between the two films.^[1] Heropanti was a commercial success and won her the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut and the IIFA Award for Star Debut of the Year - Female.^[1]

After her Telugu film Dohchay (2015), Sanon appeared in Rohit Shetty's action comedy Dilwale (2015) with Varun Dhawan, Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol, which grossed over Rs 3.72 billion worldwide and was among the highest-grossing Indian films of its time.^[1] After a year away from the screen she worked with the Maddock Films producer Dinesh Vijan for the first time on Raabta (2017), which failed, and then starred as a headstrong small-town woman in Bareilly Ki Barfi (2017), which was better received.^[1] In 2019 she starred opposite Kartik Aaryan in Luka Chuppi, a satire on live-in relationships that grossed Rs 1.29 billion, and in Housefull 4, which earned over Rs 2.8 billion despite poor reviews; the period drama Panipat that year was a box-office bomb.^[1]

Mimi (2021), directed by Laxman Utekar and released on Netflix and JioCinema, was the turning point. She played an aspiring actress who becomes a surrogate mother and gained 15 kg for the role, and although critics were lukewarm on the film, they praised her performance and one outlet called it a career-best.^[1] She won the Filmfare Award for Best Actress and the National Film Award for Best Actress, and later said the film inspired her to seek better-written roles.^[1]

The years after Mimi were mixed. Bachchhan Paandey (2022) could not recover its Rs 1.8 billion investment, and in Bhediya (2022) she had a short but well-noticed role.^[1] Shehzada (2023) failed, and Adipurush (2023), in which she played Janaki opposite Prabhas, was made on a budget of around Rs 6 billion, drew negative reviews and many controversies and was a box-office bomb; Ganapath (2023) also failed.^[1]

She returned to form in 2024. She played a humanoid robot in the science-fiction romantic comedy Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya with Shahid Kapoor, which earned Rs 133.64 crore worldwide and brought her a Filmfare Best Actress nomination, and played a flight attendant in the heist comedy Crew with Tabu and Kareena Kapoor Khan.^[1] That same year she produced and starred in the Netflix mystery Do Patti, playing twin sisters opposite Kajol, under her new banner Blue Butterfly Films, and won the IIFA Digital Award for Best Actress.^[1] The romantic drama Tere Ishk Mein (2025), with Dhanush, was a financial success and became her fourth-highest-grossing film worldwide, and it later performed strongly on Netflix.^[1][11]

In June 2026 she starred in Cocktail 2, a spiritual sequel to the 2012 film, as part of a love triangle with Shahid Kapoor and Rashmika Mandanna.^[1] It received mostly negative reviews but earned about Rs 1.5 billion worldwide against a similar budget, and is regarded as a moderate commercial success.^[1] She also appears in a cameo in Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai, reuniting with Varun Dhawan for a special dance number.^[1][6]

Her next announced project is an untitled out-and-out horror film from Maddock Films, her ninth collaboration with the banner and her second solo lead for them after Mimi.^[5] Reports have also said that a sequel to Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya is in the works and that she is in talks for a film opposite Vijay Deverakonda, though neither has been officially confirmed.^[6]

Sanon is unmarried. In March 2026 she told the media she was not in a hurry to marry, after reports that linked her to the businessman Kabir Bahia.^[6] In July 2026 she spoke publicly about having frozen her eggs while preparing for Mimi, saying she wanted to encourage conversation about fertility preservation among women.^[6]

She has been vocal about issues such as pay disparity and what she calls the patriarchal mindset in the film industry.^[1] In August 2026 she appeared in a Raksha Bandhan advertisement for the jewellery brand GIVA, which drew criticism online over her Indo-Western outfit; she defended her look, saying that a woman's respect for her culture should not be judged by her clothes, and the brand later withdrew the advertisement.^[1][7]

Outside films, she has built a business portfolio. She launched the clothing line Ms. Taken in 2016, co-founded the fitness startup The Tribe in 2022, and launched the skincare brand Hyphen in July 2023, co-founded with PEP Technologies, the parent company of mCaffeine.^[1][8] Hyphen was reported to have generated Rs 1 billion in revenue in its first year and Rs 4 billion in its second, although other reports have noted that its filed accounts for FY24 showed far lower revenue, so these company figures should be read with caution.^[1][8] In 2023 she also launched Blue Butterfly Films, which produced Do Patti.^[1]

She endorses brands such as Coca-Cola, Titan's Raga, Parachute and Tissot, and she appeared in Forbes India's Celebrity 100 list in 2019, ranking 38th, and in GQ India's list of 30 most influential young Indians in 2022.^[1] She ranked between 13th and 19th in The Times of India's Most Desirable Women list from 2017 to 2020 and 25th on IMDb's list of the 100 most viewed Indian stars in 2024.^[1] During the COVID-19 pandemic she donated to a government relief fund and later raised money for the Kailash Satyarthi Children's Foundation, and she has performed at the opening ceremonies of the 2017 Indian Premier League and the 2023 Women's Premier League.^[1]

Estimates of her net worth vary. Several websites put it between Rs 82 crore and Rs 100 crore (about US$10 to 12 million), another puts it at Rs 100 to 130 crore, and one report says she bought a penthouse in Bandra for around Rs 78 crore in 2026; because these are unaudited estimates, they should be treated as approximate.^[8][9]