Mrunal Thakur

Mrunal Thakur (born 1 August 1992) is an Indian actress who predominantly works in Hindi and Telugu films. Thakur is a recipient of several accolades including a Filmfare Award South, a Filmfare OTT Award, three SIIMA Awards and an ITA Award.

Thakur began her acting career in television, starring in the soap operas Mujhse Kuchh Kehti...Yeh Khamoshiyaan (2012) and Kumkum Bhagya (2014–2016), which earned her the ITA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Thakur made her Hindi film debut with Love Sonia (2018) and subsequently played the female lead in Super 30 (2019) and Batla House (2019), both of which were box-office successes. After a series of commercial failures, Thakur gained popularity with the successful Telugu romantic dramas Sita Ramam (2022) and Hi Nanna (2023).

Mrunal Thakur was born on 1 August 1992 to a Marathi-speaking family in Dhule, Maharashtra. She attended St. Joseph's Convent School, Jalgaon, and Vasant Vihar High School, near Mumbai. Thakur left KC College without graduating as she was pursuing a television career at the time of studying.

While attending college, Thakur landed a lead role as Gauri Bhosle opposite Mohit Sehgal in the Star Plus series Mujhse Kuchh Kehti...Yeh Khamoshiyaan. The show aired from 2012 to 2013. Later in 2013, Thakur appeared in an episodic appearance on the mystery thriller Har Yug Mein Aayega Ek – Arjun, in which she played a journalist named Sakshi Anand.

In February 2014, Thakur was cast for Zee TV's soap opera Kumkum Bhagya, for which she began shooting the following month. The show, co-starring Sriti Jha, Shabir Ahluwalia, Arjit Taneja, and Supriya Shukla, started airing on 15 April, and saw Thakur portray Bulbul Arora Khanna, a woman who along with her elder sister (played by Jha) helps their mother (played by Shukla) run a marriage hall. The show received mostly positive to mixed reviews from critics. Thakur quit the show in January 2016.

Thakur appeared as a Contestant on Box Cricket League 1 in 2014 and Nach Baliye 7 in 2015. In 2016, she danced in a special episode of &TV's Saubhagyalakshmi, and had a guest appearance in Tuyul & Mbak Yul Reborn. Her final appearance before she retired from television was on the Indonesian serial Nadin, where she played Tara.

Thakur made her film debut with the Marathi film Hello Nandan (2014), in which she played the role of Rubi, followed by another Marathi film Vitti Dandu (2014), where she portrayed Sandhya. Her next Marathi film was Surajya, where she played the role of Dr. Swapna.

In 2016, Thakur began work on her first Hindi project, the international film Love Sonia, for which she stayed at Kolkata. The film was released in September 2018 after various delays and featured her in the titular role of a village girl who brings to light the issue of global human trafficking. For preparation, Thakur stayed at a brothel to study the body language of prostitutes. Although the film was generally well reviewed, it was a failure at the domestic box office.