Varalaxmi Sarathkumar (born 5 March 1985) is an Indian actress who appears in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam films. She made her debut with the Tamil film Podaa Podi (2012).

Early life and family

Varalaxmi was born to actor Sarathkumar and Chaya on 5 March 1985 in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. Her stepmother is actress Raadhika.Varalaxmi did her schooling at St. Michael's Academy, Chennai. She is a graduate in Microbiology from Hindustan Arts and Science college, Chennai with a Masters in Business Management from the University of Edinburgh. She honed her acting skills at Anupam Kher's Acting School in Mumbai, before becoming a professional actress.

Personal life

On 2 March 2024, Varalaxmi Sarathkumar was engaged to Nicholai Sachdev, who is a gallerist based in Mumbai.

Career

Varalaxmi auditioned for Shankar's ''Boys'' (2003) and was selected to play the lead role, before her father requested her to turn down the opportunity. Likewise, she also missed out on opportunities to act in Balaji Sakthivel's ''Kaadhal'' (2004) and Venkat Prabhu's ''Saroja'' (2008).Varalaxmi signed on to star in Vignesh Shivan's romantic drama film ''Podaa Podi'' (2012) during June 2008, citing that the opportunity to portray a London-based dancer had excited her. The film went through a protracted development, taking four years to make, before being released in October 2012. Co-starring Silambarasan, Varalaxmi won critical acclaim for her performance. Rediff.com noted she was the "scene stealer" and added "she comes across as a genuine, warm person, able and willing to accept those around her for themselves, and rattles off her dialogues with such spontaneity and charm that she wins you over right away". Likewise, a critic from Sify.com wrote she "is the big surprise here as she makes a promising debut and brings alive her character with not just those smart lines, but with the kind of confidence and candour". The film performed moderately at the box office but performed well in the multiplexes. Soon after the film's release, Varalaxmi worked on Sundar C's masala film ''Madha Gaja Raja'', alongside Vishal, but the film remains unreleased owing to financial troubles.In 2014, she embarked on her second venture, the Kannada film Maanikya (2014), starring alongside actor Sudeep. This film proved to be a major success and emerged as one of the highest-grossing Kannada films of that year. Additionally, in the same year, she commenced shooting for Bala's Tharai Thappattai (2016), in which she had to undergo a weight loss of ten kilograms to convincingly portray a karakattam dancer.In 2016, she announced on Twitter that she has been cast alongside Mammootty in the Malayalam film ''Kasaba''. In her tweet, the actress said that the big opportunity to work alongside Mammootty came to her apparently due to her performance in the Tamil film ''Tharai Thappattai''. Soon after the film's release, Varalaxmi worked on Sundar C's masala film ''Madha Gaja Raja'', alongside Vishal, but the film remains unreleased owing to financial troubles.In 2014, she embarked on her second venture, the Kannada film Maanikya (2014), starring alongside actor Sudeep. This film proved to be a major success and emerged as one of the highest-grossing Kannada films of that year. Additionally, in the same year, she commenced shooting for Bala's Tharai Thappattai (2016), in which she had to undergo a weight loss of ten kilograms to convincingly portray a karakattam dancer.In 2016, she announced on Twitter that she has been cast alongside Mammootty in the Malayalam film ''Kasaba''. In her tweet, the actress said that the big opportunity to work alongside Mammootty came to her apparently due to her performance in the Tamil film ''Tharai Thappattai''. Soon after the film's release, Varalaxmi worked on Sundar C's masala film ''Madha Gaja Raja'', alongside Vishal, but the film remains unreleased owing to financial troubles.In 2014, she embarked on her second venture, the Kannada film Maanikya (2014), starring alongside actor Sudeep. This film proved to be a major success and emerged as one of the highest-grossing Kannada films of that year. Additionally, in the same year, she commenced shooting for Bala's Tharai Thappattai (2016), in which she had to undergo a weight loss of ten kilograms to convincingly portray a karakattam dancer.In 2016, she announced on Twitter that she has been cast alongside Mammootty in the Malayalam film ''Kasaba''. In her tweet, the actress said that the big opportunity to work alongside Mammootty came to her apparently due to her performance in the Tamil film ''Tharai Thappattai''. Varalaxmi was also committed to starring in ''Aakasha Mittaayee'', the Malayalam remake of the Tamil film ''Appa'' but left, citing the behaviour of its producers whom she called "mannerless". In 2017, Varalaxmi appearedin ''Vikram Vedha'', ''Nibunan'', ''Vismaya'', ''Sathya'', ''Kaattu'' and ''Masterpiece''. Varalaxmi turned as Host for a TV show titled ''Unnai Arindhaal'' (2018) on Jaya TV. She played the antagonist's role in ''Sandakozhi 2'' (2018) and ''Sarkar'' (2018). She worked on her first Telugu film, ''Tenali Ramakrishna BA. BL'' (2019). She has played a role in investigative thriller ''Danny'' (2020) in which she tried out the role of a cop. The makers have chosen to bestow the title ''Makkal Selvi'' on Varalaxmi in the title credits and all the promotional materials of the film.