Ragini Dwivedi

Ragini Dwivedi
Dwivedi at second SIIMA function,2013
Born	Ragini Dwivedi 24 May 1990 Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Nationality	Indian
Occupation	Actress, model
Years active	2009–present
Modeling information
Height	5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)[1]

Ragini Dwivedi (born 24 May 1990)^[2] is an Indian film actress and model who appears in South Indian cinema, but primarily in Kannada cinema. As a model, she was the runner-up of the 2008 Femina Miss India contest and won the Richfeel Femina Miss Beautiful Hair award at the 2009 Pantaloons Femina Miss India contest.^[1]

She made her entry to filmdom with Veera Madakari (2009) which won her the Suvarna Film Award for Best Debut Actress. She rose to fame starring in successful Kannada language films, Kempe Gowda (2011), Shiva (2012), Bangari (2013) and Ragini IPS (2014), thus establishing herself as one of the leading actresses in Kannada cinema.

Early life

Dwivedi was born to a Punjabi family^[3] on 24 May 1990 in Bangalore, Karnataka and was brought up there.^[4] However, she has her roots in Rewari, Haryana. Her father Rakesh Kumar Dwivedi, born in Rewari, was an Army general in the Indian Army and her mother Rohini, a housewife. Her paternal grandfather Pyare Lal Dwivedi was a railway guard in Rewari.^[5]

^[6] She was recognised by fashion designer, Prasad Bidapa in 2008 and introduced her to modelling. As a model, she modelled for Lakme Fashion Week, Sri Lanka fashion week and for designers like Rohit Bal, Tarun Tahiliani, Manish Malhotra, Ritu Kumar and Sabyasachi Mukherjee.^[5] She participated in the Femina Miss India contest held in Hyderabad in December 2008, where she was declared the first runner-up,^[7] thus receiving a direct entry to the 2009 Pantaloons Femina Miss India in Mumbai, where she was given the Richfeel Miss Beautiful Hair title.^[5]

Career

Debut and breakthrough (2009–13)

Dwivedi at Acharya Habba, 2012

Dwivedi made her acting debut with the Kannada film Veera Madakari in 2009. The action-comedy was a remake of the Telugu film Vikramarkudu and she was cast opposite Sudeep. The film became a major commercial success of the year. In the same year, she appeared in the film Gokula in a brief role. In 2010, she featured in five films out of which her Malayalam debut, Kandhahar, was one.

Dwivedi's career break came in 2011, with the action film, Kempegowda, with Sudeep as her co-star.^[8][9] She earned a nomination in the South Filmfare awards as a best female leading actress. The same year saw her in comic-capers such as Kalla Malla Sulla and Kaanchaana. The song Thuppa Beku Thuppa in Kalla Malla Sulla shot on her became a rage and one of the biggest hits of the year.^[10]

The year 2012 saw her featuring in films alongside leading male actors of Kannada cinema, with Upendra in Aarakshaka and with Shivarajkumar in Shiva. She received the award for the best actress in the critics' category for her performance in Shiva as well as in Arakshaka her role was highly appreciated.^[11][12] Her other film Villain also released in the same year. She then appeared in a Malayalam language film titled Face2Face with Mammootty as her co-actor. She made special appearances in the films Victory^[13] and Prabhu Deva's Hindi film, R... Rajkumar.^[14][15][16]

Recent work (2014–present)

Dwivedi's first release of 2014 was a bilingual film known as Nimirndhu Nil in Tamil language and Janda Pai Kapiraju in Telugu, her first film in Telugu.^[17] Her second release of the year was Ragini IPS, the long delayed film and the first Kannada film to be named after an actress.^[18] Cast as a police officer Ragini, the film marked her break from glamorous characters that she had a reputation for portraying. The film however opened to mixed reviews from film critics.^[19][20] However, it earned her, her second Filmfare Award for Best Actress nomination.^[21] Her next release was Namaste Madam, a remake of the 2002 Telugu film Missamma. Her performance as Radhika, chairperson of a multinational corporation playing as a seductress, received positive reviews from critics.^[22] Her first release of 2015, Shivam saw her appear in another glamorous role as a femme fatale, and as a parallel lead alongside Upendra.^[23]

As of April 2016, Dwivedi has completed filming Ranachandi is filming with Naane Next CM. She is also filming with Faisal Saif's multi-lingual film Amma. In preparation for her role in Naane Next CM, she shed 15 kg over a span of three months.^[24]

Personal life and off-screen work

Since 2011, Dwivedi has been endorsing for Nandini Milk which is a product of Karnataka Milk Federation.^[25][26] After actress Kushboo, Dwivedi is the only Indian actress to have a fan club named after her, on which she said, "Already there are many fans pages in my name on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. I will also be interacting with my followers over there. But these registered and official fans association will help me to have direct conversation with my fans."^[20]

In 2015, Dwivedi was made the brand ambassador of Times Asia Wedding Fair.^[27] The same year, at the India Leadership Conclave in Mumbai, she was honoured and awarded the Most Promising Face of Indian Cinema.^[28]

Filmography

Key

Denotes films that have not yet been released

Year	Film	Role	Language	Notes
2009	Veera Madakari	Neeraja Goswami	Kannada	Suvarna Film Award for Best Debut Actress
2009	Gokula		Kannada	Special Appearance
2010	Shankar IPS	Ashwini	Kannada
2010	Gandedhe	Nandini	Kannada
2010	Holi	Rathi	Kannada
2010	Naayaka	Madhu	Kannada
2010	Kandahar	Aishwarya	Malayalam
2011	Kempegowda	Kavya	Kannada	Nominated—Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Kannada
2011	Kalla Malla Sulla	Khushboo	Kannada
2011	Kanchana	Baby	Kannada
2012	Aarakshaka	Maya	Kannada
2012	Villain	Anu	Kannada
2012	Shiva	Julie	Kannada	SIIMA Award for Best Actress (Critics)
2012	Ariyaan	Steffy	Tamil
2012	Face2Face	Jayasree	Malayalam
2013	Bangari	Paddhu	Kannada
2013	Victory	Herself	Kannada	Special appearance in an item song
2013	R... Rajkumar		Hindi	Special appearance
2014	Nimirndhu Nil		Tamil
2014	Ragini IPS	Ragini	Kannada	Nominated—Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Kannada
2014	Namaste Madam	Radhika	Kannada
2015	Shivam	Mandira	Kannada
2015	Janda Pai Kapiraju		Telugu
2016	Parapancha		Kannada
2016	Amma	Jaya	Tamil Hindi Kannada Telugu Malayalam	Filming
2016	Ranachandi		Kannada	Post-production
2016	Naane Next CM		Kannada	Filming

References

1. "2009 Femina Miss India contestants – Ragini Dwivedi". The Times of India. Retrieved 5 April 2014.
2. "Nice to be 19". The Times of India. 25 May 2009. Retrieved 23 July 2012.
3. Bhardwaj, Meera (7 March 2013). "The She: Strong, stronger, strongest". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 15 October 2013.
4. "I am Kannada cinema's most fashionable actress today – Ragini Dwivedi". southscope.in. 13 November 2010. Retrieved 5 April 2014.
5. "Ragini brings laurels to Rewari". ''The Tribune. 23 June 2009. Retrieved 5 April 2014.
6. "From films to Miss India pageant". Rediff.com. 1 May 2009. Retrieved 23 July 2012.
7. "PFMI South '09". The Times of India. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
8. "South's biggest blockbusters of 2011". Ibnlive. 22 December 2011. Retrieved 15 October 2013.
9. "Shiva will be the biggest commercial film this year". Rediff.com. 23 August 2012. Retrieved 15 October 2013.
10. Prathibha Joy, TNN 2 October 2011, 03.59PM IST (2 October 2011). "Ragini Dwivedi's the new item girl". The Times of India. Retrieved 15 October 2013.
11. "Ragini's wardrobe malfunction at SIIMA". The Times of India. 17 September 2013. Retrieved 15 October 2013.
12. Sudhish Kamath (15 September 2013). "Stars in Sharjah". The Hindu. Retrieved 15 October 2013.
13. "Ragini performs yet another item song!". Sify.com. 10 May 2013. Retrieved 15 October 2013.
14. "Ragini Dwivedi shakes her booty with Sonu Sood".
15. "'Prabhu Dheva is a dream come true'".
16. "Ragini Dwivedi to do a special number in Prabhu Dheva's next". The Times of India. 15 October 2013. Retrieved 15 October 2013.
17. "Ragini Dwivedi set for Tamil-Telugu debut". The Times of India. 4 March 2014. Retrieved 5 March 2014.
18. "Sandalwood films titled after popular actors". The Times of India. 27 September 2013. Retrieved 15 October 2013.
19. "Ragini IPS review". The Times of India. 30 March 2014. Retrieved 5 April 2014.
20. "Ragini Dwivedi To Have Official Fans Association". oneindia.com. 4 April 2014. Retrieved 5 April 2014.
21. "Nominations for the 62nd Britannia Filmfare Awards (South)". 3 June 2015. Retrieved 27 June 2015.
22. "Namaste Madam review". The Times of India. 27 October 2014. Retrieved 3 November 2014.
23. "Movie review: Shivam". Bangalore Mirror. 2 January 2015. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
24. Sharadhaa, A. (11 April 2016). "Ragini Drops 15 Kilos". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
25. "Ragini for 'Nandini'". indiaglitz.com. 19 April 2011. Retrieved 6 March 2014.
26. "The Grand Launch of Brand New Milk Products". kmfnandini. Retrieved 6 March 2014.
27. "Ragini Brand Ambassador for wedding brides.". southie.in. Retrieved 28 September 2015.
28. "Ragini: Most promising face of Indian cinema". The Times of India. 20 September 2015. Retrieved 28 September 2015.

External links

• Ragini Dwivedi at the Internet Movie Database
• Ragini Dwivedi on Twitter