From Child Artist to National Award Winner: Keerthy Suresh’s Inspiring Journey in Cinema

Keerthy Suresh is one of those actresses who prioritizes acting over beauty. Belonging to the Tamil industry, she has also gained significant popularity in Telugu films. Her role as Savitri in the movie ‘Mahanati‘ was phenomenal, earning her a National Award. However, her film career has seen many interesting twists and turns. Today (October 17), on the occasion of Keerthy Suresh’s birthday, let’s look into some special aspects of her life.

As a Child Artist

The daughter of actors Suresh Kumar and Menaka, Keerthy Suresh sparkled as a child artist in the Malayalam film ‘Pilots’. She also appeared as a child artist in the films ‘Achaneyanenikkishtam’ and ‘Kuberan’.

Mother as Chiru’s Heroine.. Daughter as Sister

In Chiranjeevi’s film ‘Punnami Naagu‘, Keerthy’s mother Menaka acted as the heroine. Recently, in the movie ‘Bhola Shankar‘, Keerthy played the significant role of Chiranjeevi’s sister. Despite the film not doing well, their performances as siblings were well-received. During the shoot in Hyderabad, Chiranjeevi mentioned during movie promotions that he ensured home-cooked meals were sent to Keerthy throughout the filming.

Stalled Projects at the Beginning

Keerthy Suresh began her career as a heroine with the film ‘Geethanjali’, starring Malayalam superstar Mohanlal. However, even before this, she had signed three projects as a heroine, which had also started shooting. Unexpectedly, these three projects were halted midway, leading to great disappointment for her, as she mentioned in an interview.

Tagged as Iron Leg

Early in her career, the halting of three projects, and the failure of films like ‘Geethanjali’ and ‘Ring Master’ in Malayalam, and her first Tamil film ‘Idhu Enna Maayam’ being a disaster, Keerthy was tagged as an ‘Iron Leg’. She faced significant trolling but ignored it and went on to succeed in films, establishing herself as a successful heroine.

Turning Point with Mahanati

Her first Telugu film ‘Nenu Sailaja‘ was a success, which increased her opportunities in Tollywood and Kollywood. Despite being in commercial films, she felt unfulfilled as an actress until ‘Mahanati’ came along. Her portrayal of Savitri was critically acclaimed, earning her the National Award for Best Actress and becoming an inspiration to other actresses. Her career graph significantly rose after ‘Mahanati’.

Series of Failures

Post-‘Mahanati’, it was believed that Keerthy’s career would have no downturns, and she did receive a series of offers. However, subsequent films like ‘Saamy Square’, ‘Pandem kodi 2‘, ‘Rang De‘, and ‘Annaatthe’ failed to meet audience expectations. Her women-oriented films ‘Penguin‘, ‘Miss India’, and ‘Good Luck Sakhi’ also failed to make an impact.

Director’s Intent to Cast Keerthy

Following last year’s release ‘Dasara‘, which was a massive success, Keerthy made a strong comeback. Directed by Srikanth Odela with Nani as the hero, the film grossed over 100 crores and received widespread praise for Keerthy’s performance. She excelled in the role of Vennela, a rural woman, and received awards like SIIMA and Filmfare for Best Actress. However, it was revealed during movie promotions that director Srikanth Odela initially planned to cast Keerthy as the heroine for ‘Dasara’ after narrating the movie story and suggested she gain 10-12 kilograms, which she couldn’t. Nani mentioned that Odela decided to cast her despite her not being able to gain weight, highlighting that even though he was a debut director and she was a National Award-winning actress, they ended up becoming good friends on the movie sets.

Keerthy’s Special Talent

Not just her face, Keerthy Suresh’s voice is also beautiful. Directors have capitalized on her melodious voice, having her sing beautifully the song ‘Pudhu Metro Rail’ in ‘Saamy Square’. She also recently lent her voice to the character of Bujji Vehicle in ‘Kalki 2898 AD‘ and proved her dancing skills with the ‘Gandhaari’ album.

This Year into Bollywood

Having already entertained this year with ‘Siren‘ and ‘Raghu Thatha‘, Keerthy is busy with upcoming projects like ‘Revolver Reeta’, ‘Kannivedi’, and ‘Uppu Kappurambu’. She is set to enter Bollywood with ‘Baby John’. In an instance, she mentioned that the roles of Savitri (Mahanati), Vennela (Dasara), and Kalavathi (Sarkaru Vaari Paata) were challenging in her career.