Ileana D’Cruz

Ileana D’Cruz (born 1 November 1987) is an Indian-born Portuguese actress and model who predominantly appears in Telugu and Hindi language films. D’Cruz was born in Mumbai and spent most of her childhood in Goa. D’Cruz made her screen debut in 2006 with Telugu-language film Devadasu, which was a commercial success whilst earning her the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debutant.

D’Cruz established herself as a leading actress in Telugu cinema with successful films including Pokiri (2006), Rakhi (2006), Munna (2007), Jalsa (2008), Kick (2009) and Julayi (2012).^[1] She made her debut in Tamil cinema with Kedi (2006) and starred in Shankar’s Nanban (2012), a commercial success.

D’Cruz expanded to Hindi cinema in 2012 with Anurag Basu’s comedy-drama Barfi!, for which she won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut. She has since played the leading lady in Main Tera Hero (2014), Rustom (2016), and Raid (2018).

Early and personal life

D’Cruz was born to a Catholic father and Muslim mother in Mahim, Mumbai on 1 November 1987.^[5][6] Her family moved to Parra, Goa when she was 10 years old.

Her first portfolio was created in January 2003; D’Cruz called it a “disaster”. Subsequent photo shoots and ramp shows led to a second portfolio the following year, which landed her advertisements from Electrolux, Emami Talc and Fair & Lovely. The latter, in particular, which was directed by Rakesh Roshan, gave her exposure and brought in several offers for acting in feature films.

D’Cruz acquired Portuguese nationality in 2014. In an interview with Verve in 2017, she said that Portugal was a part of her ancestry.

She was in a relationship with Australian photographer Andrew Kneebone. It was rumored that they had already married.  On 28 August 2019, Indian media aired the news that the couple had broken up.

Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Role(s)	Language(s)	Notes	Ref.
2006	Devadasu	Bhanu	Telugu
	Pokiri	Shruti	Telugu
	Kedi	Aarthi	Tamil
	Khatarnak	Nakshatra	Telugu
	Rakhi	Tripura	Telugu
2007	Munna	Nidhi	Telugu
	Aata	Sathya	Telugu
2008	Jalsa	Bhagyamathi/Bhagi	Telugu
	Bhale Dongalu	Jyothi	Telugu
2009	Kick	Naina	Telugu
	Rechipo	Krishna Veni	Telugu
	Saleem	Satyavathi	Telugu
2010	Huduga Hudugi	Herself	Kannada	Guest appearance
2011	Shakti	Aishwarya	Telugu
	Nenu Naa Rakshasi	Meenakshi/Shravya	Telugu
2012	Nanban	Ria Santhanam	Tamil
	Julayi	Madhu	Telugu
	Devudu Chesina Manushulu	Ileana	Telugu
	Barfi!	Shruti Ghosh Sengupta	Hindi
2013	Phata Poster Nikhla Hero	Kajal	Hindi
2014	Main Tera Hero	Sunaina Goradia	Hindi
	Happy Ending	Aanchal Reddy	Hindi
2016	Rustom	Cynthia Pavri	Hindi
2017	Mubarakan	Supreet “Sweety” Gill	Hindi
	Baadshaho	Rani Gitanjali Devi	Hindi
2018	Raid	Malini Patnaik	Hindi
	Amar Akbar Anthony	Aishwarya/Pooja/Teresa	Telugu
2019	Pagalpanti	Sanjana	Hindi
2021	The Big Bull	Meera Rao	Hindi
2022	Unfair & Lovely	TBA	Hindi	Completed
	Untitled Shirsha Guha film	Illli	Hindi	Filming

Music videos

Accolades[edit]