Shriya Saran (born September 11, 1982) is an Indian film (Cinema of India) actress. She began her career acting in music videos, while also attending an acting studio to follow her dream to act. After her debut in 2001 with Ishtam, she gained Telugu cinemas attention in 2002 by playing the role of Bhanu in Santhosham, her first major hit. Following the film she appeared in several Telugu films with prominent actors, whilst, also making in-roads in Bollywood as well as the Tamil film industry. In 2007, Saran became a national figure after her performance alongside Rajinikanth in Sivaji: The Boss (Sivaji (film)), after which she has signed several Bollywood, Kollywood and also a Hollywood film.

Saran performs predominantly in leading heroine roles in high-budget and major studio films, ranging from romantic comedies and drama to science fiction and action (Action movie) thrillers. Her blockbuster released films include Santhosham (2002), Tagore (Tagore (film)) (2003), Sivaji: The Boss (2007) is the highest grosser in the indian film history and Kanthaswamy (Kanthaswamy (film)) (2009). Her other major box office film include Nuvve Nuvve (2002), Nenunnanu (2003) and Chatrapathi (Chatrapathi (film)) (2005) which earned her a Filmfare (Filmfare Awards South) best actress in Telugu, Thiruvilayadal Arambam (2006), Azhagiya Tamil Magan (2007) and Kutty (Kutty (2010 film)) (2010) in Tamil, Awaarapan (2007) which earned her Filmfare (Filmfare Awards) nomination for best debut actress and Mission Istaanbul (2008) in Hindi and Pokkiri Raja (Pokkiri Raja (2010 film)) (2010) which is her debut film in Malayalam.