Rajshri Deshpande

Rajshri Deshpande is an Indian actress and activist known for her powerful performances in film and television across Hindi, Marathi, and English-language projects. She gained international recognition with her portrayal of Laxmi in Pan Nalin’s TIFF Audience Choice film Angry Indian Goddesses. This was followed by the titular role of Durga in S Durga, which won the Hivos Tiger Award at the Rotterdam Film Festival. She played Manju in BBC One’s Emmy award-winning British television show McMafia, directed by James Watkins. Rajshri received critical acclaim for her performance as Subhadra in Netflix India’s most successful series to date, the Emmy-nominated Sacred Games, created by Vikram Motwane and directed by Anurag Kashyap. In 2018, the film Manto premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section, where Rajshri portrayed Urdu novelist Ismat Chughtai. In 2021, she played a key role in the Netflix show The Fame Game. In 2023, she starred in the Netflix limited series Trial by Fire (directed by Prashant Nair), which was one of the top ten most watched shows on Netflix in eight countries. Rajshri received the Best Actress (Series) award for Trial by Fire at the Asian Academy Creative Awards in Singapore, which recognizes excellence in the film and television industry across 16 nations in the Asia-Pacific region. She has received nine more awards in India, including Filmfare, Film Companion Gold, and seven other prestigious awards. In 2024, she starred in the Marathi film Satyashodhak, based on social reformer Savitri Bai Phule. The film was super hit in Maharashtra and was made tax-free. Rajshri received the 2025 NDTV Best Actress award for this role. In 2025, she received critical accolades for her performance in the Netflix show Black Warrant, directed by Vikramaditya Motwane. Rajshri recently finished an international SAG AFRA project as a co-producer and actor, starring Suraj Sharma (Life of Pi) as another lead alongside her. She also completed the independent film Hawks with Barun Sobti, directed by Deepankar Prakash, and another Malayalam film with director Abrid Shine. In 2025, Rajshri served as a feature film jury for the IFFLA film festival in Los Angeles. She also served as jury for the Asian Academy Creative Awards in Singapore and as a Mumbai Film Festival short film jury alongside Hansal Mehta. Her latest 2026 Marathi film BAAPYA features Rajshri in the key role of Shailaja (later Shailesh), a character who undergoes a sex change in a trans-identity story set in coastal Dapoli. Directed by Sameer Tewari, the comedy-drama released on 15 May 2026. In addition to acting, Rajshri devotes considerable time to social service. After the 2015 Nepal earthquake, she worked with an international NGO in Nepal. In 2015, she adopted the drought-prone village of Pandhari in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra, where she organized a rainwater harvesting project, built toilets, conducted health checkups and community motivation camps, and built an Eco-sensitive school. Encouraged by this success, she adopted 30 more villages in the region. In 2018, she founded the nonprofit Nabhangan Foundation to broaden her efforts toward sustainable village development. Since its creation, Nabhangan has empowered villages to reach self-reliance, including transitioning four Zilla Parishad Schools into Eco-friendly, sustainable buildings. In 2024, Rajshri received a fellowship from the University of Michigan, where she served as guest faculty/mentor for PhD students during a six-week program. Rajshri is a law graduate who worked in advertising for six years before transitioning to acting. She hails from humble beginnings, raised in a family of farmers. She is currently based in Mumbai, India, and Los Angeles.