Radhika Apte Indian Actress Born 1985 in Pune

Early life

Radhika Apte was born on 7 September 1985 and grew up in Pune, in the Indian state of Maharashtra. Part of her schooling happened at home, in a small group with a handful of friends whose parents shared the teaching. She later studied economics and mathematics at Fergusson College and is also listed as having attended Savitribai Phule Pune University.

Alongside her studies she trained in Kathak for eight years and became involved with the city's theatre scene. That interest led her to Mumbai in search of film work, but the first stay there was short and she went back to Pune. She then spent a year in London studying contemporary dance at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. After the year abroad she returned to Mumbai and settled there to work in film.

Career

Apte's first screen appearance was a small part in the Hindi film Vaah! Life Ho Toh Aisi! in 2005, made while she was still a student. Her first leading role came in the Bengali drama Antaheen (2009), in which she played a television journalist alongside Aparna Sen, Sharmila Tagore and Rahul Bose. The same period brought a Marathi release, Gho Mala Asla Hava, followed by roles in Ram Gopal Varma's Rakta Charitra and its sequel, and in the anthology film I Am.

Over the next several years she worked in many languages. Her credits include Marathi, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi productions, among them Dhoni (2012), her first Tamil film, and Tukaram the same year. In 2015 she appeared in six features within the first eight months of the year. Badlapur, Hunterrr and Manjhi: The Mountain Man were among them; in the last she played Falguni Devi, the wife of Dashrath Manjhi. Her performance in the Tamil gangster drama Kabali (2016), where she played the wife of Rajinikanth, reached a wide audience, as did her independent films of that year such as Phobia and Parched.

The year 2018 marked a move into streaming. She appeared in the anthology Lust Stories, the thriller series Sacred Games and the horror mini-series Ghoul, in which she played Lt Nida Rahim, all for Netflix. In the same year she co-starred with Akshay Kumar in Pad Man, as the wife of a man who sets out to make low-cost sanitary napkins, and took a role in the black comedy Andhadhun. She portrayed Noor Inayat Khan in the American film A Call to Spy (2019), and later appeared in Raat Akeli Hai (2020), Vikram Vedha and Monica, O My Darling (both 2022), Sister Midnight (2024) and Last Days (2025). In all, 33 screen credits are on record.

Apte also directs. Her directorial debut was the short film The Sleepwalkers, which played in competition at the Palm Springs International ShortFest in 2020. She has appeared in short films as well, including Ahalya (2015), and has continued to perform on stage, mostly in Hindi, with Aasakta Kalamanch, a theatre group in Pune.

Recognition

For Lust Stories she received an International Emmy Award nomination, which made her the first Indian actress nominated in that category. Her performance in Sister Midnight brought a nomination for a British Independent Film Award, and her work in Dhoni earned a SIIMA Award nomination for best supporting actress. Several of her best-known films, including Kabali, Pad Man and Andhadhun, were commercial successes, and Film Companion included her work in Phobia on its list of the most notable performances of the decade.

Personal life

Apte met the London-based musician Benedict Taylor while studying in London, and the couple have been married since 2012. She has one child. Apte has spoken publicly in support of the MeToo movement in India and against sexual harassment in the film industry.