Rajshri Deshpande

Profile: Rajshri Deshpande is an Indian actress and activist. She gained international recognition with her portrayal of Laxmi in Pan Nalin's TIFF Audience choice film ANGRY INDIAN GODDESSES. This was followed by the titular role of Durga in S DURGA, which won the Hivos Tiger Award at the Rotterdam Film Festival. She also played the role of Manju in BBC One's EMMY award-winning MCMAFIA, the British television show directed by James Watkins. Deshpande received critical acclaim for her performance as Subhadra in Netflix India's most successful series to date, the EMMY-nominated SACRED GAMES, created by Vikram Motwane and directed by Anurag Kashyap. In 2018, the film MANTO premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section where Rajshri played Urdu Novelist Ismat Chughtai. In 2021, she played a key role in the Netflix show THE FAME GAME.

TRIAL BY FIRE In 2023, she starred in the Netflix limited series TRIAL BY FIRE (directed by Prashant Nair), which was one of the top ten most watched shows on Netflix in eight countries.

Rajshri received the BEST ACTRESS series award for TRIAL BY FIRE at the ASIAN ACADEMY CREATIVE AWARDS Singapore. They recognize excellence in the film and television industry across 16 nations in the Asia-Pacific region. She has received 9 more awards in India including FILMFARE, FILM COMPANION GOLD and 7 more prestigious awards. In 2024, She starred in Marathi ( Regional language from Maharashtra ) film 'Satyashodhak' based on social reformer Savitri bai Phule. Film was Superhit in Maharashtra and made tax free too. Rajshri received 2025 NDTV Best actress for the same. In 2025 she received critical accolades for her performance in Netflix show 'Black Warrant' Directed by Vikramaditya Motwane.

Rajshri recently finished an International SAG AFRA project as a co-producer and Actor starring Suraj Sharma ( Life of Pi) as another lead with her. She finished another independent film with Barun Sobti called 'Hawks' directed by Deepankar Prakash, And another Malayalam film with director Abrid Shine.

In 2025 Rajshri's served as a feature film jury for IFFLA film festival LA. She was also served as jury for Asian creative academy, Singapore and Mumbai film festival short film jury along with Hansal Mehta.

ACTIVISM In addition to acting, Rajshri devotes a great deal of her time to social service. After the 2015 Nepal earthquake, she worked with an international NGO in the country. Also in 2015, she adopted a drought-prone village in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra called Pandhari and organized a rainwater harvesting project, built toilets, conducted health checkups and community motivation camps, and built an eco-sensitive school in the same village. Encouraged by the success and social participation in the first village, she adopted 30 more villages in the region. In 2018, she created the nonprofit NABHANGAN FOUNDATION to broaden her efforts towards sustainable village development. Since its creation, Nabhangan has made great strides to help empower villages to reach self-reliance. For example, they helped transition four Zilla Parishad Schools into an eco-friendly, sustainable building that would serve as an example for other villages. In 2024 she received a fellowship from The University of Michigan, where she was a six-week, guest faculty/mentor to PHD students this year. Rajshri is a law graduate and worked in advertising for six years. She hails from humble beginnings, having been raised in a family of farmers herself. She is currently based in Mumbai , India and in LA.