Biography
Rajshri Deshpande is an Indian actress and activist renowned for her impactful roles in Hindi, Marathi, and English films and television. She rose to international fame portraying Laxmi in Pan Nalin’s Angry Indian Goddesses, which won the TIFF Audience Choice Award. She then starred as Durga in S Durga, recipient of the Hivos Tiger Award at the Rotterdam Film Festival. Rajshri appeared as Manju in the Emmy-winning BBC One series McMafia, directed by James Watkins. She earned critical praise for her role as Subhadra in Netflix India’s Emmy-nominated hit Sacred Games, created by Vikram Motwane and directed by Anurag Kashyap. In 2018, she portrayed Urdu novelist Ismat Chughtai in Manto, which premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes. In 2021, she played a significant role in Netflix’s The Fame Game. In 2023, she led the Netflix limited series Trial by Fire, directed by Prashant Nair, which ranked among the top ten most-watched shows in eight countries. For this role, Rajshri won the Best Actress (Series) award at the Asian Academy Creative Awards in Singapore, honoring excellence across 16 Asia-Pacific nations. She has also received nine awards in India, including Filmfare, Film Companion Gold, and seven other prestigious honors. In 2024, Rajshri starred in the Marathi film Satyashodhak, based on social reformer Savitri Bai Phule; the film was a major success in Maharashtra and declared tax-free. For this performance, she earned the 2025 NDTV Best Actress award. Later in 2025, she garnered acclaim for her role in the Netflix series Black Warrant, directed by Vikramaditya Motwane. Rajshri recently completed an international SAG-AFTRA project as co-producer and actor, starring alongside Suraj Sharma (Life of Pi). She also finished the independent film Hawks with Barun Sobti, directed by Deepankar Prakash, and another Malayalam film with director Abrid Shine. In 2025, she served as a feature film jury member at the IFFLA festival in Los Angeles, as well as a jury member for the Asian Academy Creative Awards in Singapore and the Mumbai Film Festival short film jury alongside Hansal Mehta. Her latest Marathi film, BAAPYA (released 15 May 2026), directed by Sameer Tewari, features her in the pivotal role of Shailaja (later Shailesh), a character undergoing a gender transition in a trans-identity narrative set in coastal Dapoli. Beyond acting, Rajshri dedicates significant efforts to social causes. Following the 2015 Nepal earthquake, she collaborated with an international NGO in Nepal. That same year, she adopted Pandhari, a drought-affected village in Maharashtra’s Marathwada region, initiating rainwater harvesting, toilet construction, health checkups, community motivation camps, and building an eco-sensitive school. Inspired by this success, she expanded her efforts to 30 additional villages in the area. In 2018, she founded the nonprofit Nabhangan Foundation to further sustainable village development. Under her leadership, Nabhangan has empowered communities toward self-reliance, including converting four Zilla Parishad schools into eco-friendly, sustainable facilities. In 2024, Rajshri was awarded a fellowship by the University of Michigan, where she served as guest faculty and mentor for PhD students during a six-week program. A law graduate, she worked in advertising for six years before pursuing acting. Raised in a farming family, Rajshri currently splits her time between Mumbai, India, and Los Angeles.
