Sanya Malhotra (born 25 February 1992) is an Indian actress who works in Hindi films. She began her career with supporting roles in the biographical sports film Dangal (2016) and the comedy Badhaai Ho (2018), both of which rank among the highest-grossing Indian films. Malhotra received nominations for the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress for her roles in the drama Photograph (2019) and the black comedy Ludo (2020), and also received praise for starring in the streaming films Shakuntala Devi (2020), Pagglait (2021) and Love Hostel (2022). Early life and background Malhotra was born and raised in Delhi, India. She is a trained dancer in contemporary and ballet. After graduating from Gargi College, Malhotra participated in the dance reality show Dance India Dance and made it to the top 100. She moved to Mumbai, where she began appearing in auditions and began assisting camerapersons for television commercials. She was later contacted by the film casting director Mukesh Chhabra. Career Early work and recognition (2016–2019) Malhotra was selected for Nitesh Tiwari's biographical sports film Dangal along with Fatima Sana Shaikh, who was also relatively new. Before the film, she said that she did not know much about wrestling. She then watched several videos on wrestling and "how wrestlers move, walk, their body language" and also did the training. Both Malhotra and Sheikh went through five rounds of auditions, physical training and workshops with Tiwari and Aamir Khan. They were trained by coach and former wrestler Kripa Shankar Patel Bishnoi. Released in 2016, Dangal received critical acclaim and became the highest-grossing Indian film ever with earnings of more than worldwide. Anupama Chopra said in her review that Malhotra provides "strong support" to the story. Malhotra later choreographed the song "Sexy Baliye" for the Secret Superstar (2017), which featured Khan. Two years later, Malhotra starred in Vishal Bhardwaj's drama Pataakha (2018) alongside newcomer Radhika Madan. . Based on the short story Do Behnen by Charan Singh Pathik, it tells the story of two warring sisters in Rajasthan. The story was based on the wives of Pathik's brothers. To prepare for the film, both she and Madan met the real inspiration behind the characters to learn their nuances. The two stayed in Ronsi village near Jaipur and learned the Rajasthani dialect; they also got accustomed to milking buffaloes, thatching roofs, plastering the walls with dung and walking for long distances while balancing matkas