Rashmika Mandanna (born 5 April 1996) is an Indian actress who primaily works in Telugu and Hindi films. Her accolades include four SIIMA Awards and a Filmfare Award South. One of South India's highest-paid actresses, she was featured in Forbes India's 2024 list of "30 Under 30".

After a brief modelling career in 2014, Mandanna made her acting debut with the Kannada romantic comedy Kirik Party (2016) and gained further commercial success with the action film Anjani Putra and the romantic drama Chamak (both 2017). She expanded into Telugu cinema with the comedy drama Chalo (2018) and achieved her breakthrough with the romantic comedy Geetha Govindam (2018), earning the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress – Telugu. She went on to star as the leading lady in the action comedies Sarileru Neekevvaru and Bheeshma (both 2020).

Mandanna gained wider recognition with the pan-India success of the Telugu action film Pushpa: The Rise (2021). She played a supporting role in the period drama Sita Ramam (2022) and starred as the lead in the Tamil film Varisu (2023) before venturing into Hindi cinema with two less successful releases. She achieved her highest-grossing films with the action dramas Animal (2023) and Pushpa 2: The Rule (2024), as well as the historical action film Chhaava (2025). Nevertheless, her frequent roles in androcentric narratives have drawn criticism for offering limited opportunities to showcase her acting range.

Rashmika Mandanna was born on 5 April 1996 to Suman and Madan Mandanna into a Kodava Hindu family in Virajpet, a town in Kodagu district, Karnataka. Her father owns a coffee estate and a function hall in her hometown, and her mother is a homemaker. She has a younger sister, Shiman whom she helped raise and felt like a maternal figure to. As a child, her family struggled financially, and had difficulties finding a home and paying rent; according to Mandanna, her parents could not afford to buy her toys and the experience has continued to taint her relationship with money.

Mandanna attended Coorg Public School, a boarding school in Gonikoppal. During this phase of her life, she was often misunderstood due to her struggles with communication, making connecting with her peers difficult. Mandanna credits her mother for being a stabilising influence in her life and labelled her "my biggest strength".

Mandanna studied for a bachelor's degree in psychology, journalism and English literature at M. S. Ramaiah College of Arts, Science and Commerce in Bangalore. In 2014, Mandanna was awarded The Times of India's Clean & Clear Fresh Face that recognises high-potential individuals; she was subsequently made a brand ambassador for Clean & Clear as part of the winning reward. This was followed by a brief modelling career, during which she received several acting offers from production houses, which she declined, stating that she had no intention of pursuing a career in acting at the time but was convinced by her college professor to audition. After signing her first film, she informed her parents who were initially hesitant towards her pursuit of an acting career due to her unassertive personality, but they ultimately relented.

After noticing her win a pageant in 2015, Rishab Shetty offered Mandanna her debut in his Kannada romantic comedy Kirik Party (2016) opposite Rakshit Shetty. She was introduced as Saanvi, a college student with ambitions of becoming an engineer; Mandanna said she identified strongly with the character's studious nature and sense of being overlooked at school. In a positive review for The Times of India, Sunayana Suresh praised Mandanna's performance, writing that she "is easily that pin-up girl in college and she breathes her path". Kirik Party emerged as one of the highest-grossing Kannada films and her performance earned her the SIIMA Award for Best Debut Actress. Mandanna later revealed that if the film had failed, she would have returned home to manage her father's business. Her commercial success was sustained with her 2017 releases—the action film Anjani Putra and the romantic comedy Chamak. In the former, The Indian Express noted that the actress had been reduced to "a hero's arm candy", but in the latter, Firstpost's Karthik Kermalu commended Mandanna for enhancing a mediocre picture. For Chamak, she received her first Best Actress nominations at the Filmfare Awards South and the South Indian International Movie Awards (SIIMA).

Expanding into Telugu cinema in 2018, Mandanna starred in Chalo, a comedy drama about a Tamil woman who becomes romantically involved with a Telugu man (played by Naga Shaurya) in a heavily segregated village. Initially struggling with the new language, Mandanna sought help from the film's assistant director, who assisted her in improving her dialogue delivery. In mixed reviews of the film, Hemanth Kumar of Firstpost lauded her "terrific debut" and Stivathsan Nadadhur from The Hindu appreciated her comic timing. Chalo emerged as her fourth consecutive box-office success in two years. Mandanna was next cast opposite Vijay Deverakonda in Venky Kudumula's romantic comedy Geetha Govindam. Made on a shoestring budget, the film became her first to cross ₹1 billion (US$13 million) at the domestic box-office, her highest-grosser at that point. Critics for Film Companion and Firstpost considered the chemistry between her and Deverakonda to be the highlight of an otherwise monotonous film. She earned the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress and gained a Best Actress nomination at the ceremony. Mandanna ended the year with the Telugu feature Devadas, in which she was dismissed as ornamental by reviewers for Sify and The Indian Express.