Meet actress, who was rejected in 1000 auditions due to dark skin, was called ‘home breaker’ after marriage with star kid

Sobhita Dhulipala/Instagram

Born on May 31, 1992, in Tenali, Andhra Pradesh into a Telugu Brahmin family, Sobhita Dhulipala moved to Mumbai when she was sixteen. She participated in the Femina Miss India 2013 and ended up as a runner-up in the beauty pageant. She went on to represent India at the Miss Earth 2013 in Philippines, but failed to finish among the top 20 contestants.

Before Sobhita made her acting debut opposite Vicky Kaushal in the 2016 film Raman Raghav 2.0, she gave 10000 auditions and faced rejections in them due to her dark skin colour. Talking to Pinkvilla, she said, “When you first start, everything is a battle. I’m not from the movies. I recall being told numerous times during my ad auditions that I am not ‘gori’ enough. I was told directly to my face that I am not pretty enough, similar to how you see in advertisements.” 

In another interview with ABP Live, Dhulipala said, “I was not connected to the film world. My only entry point was through auditions. And after my senior year, I was modeling for a bit. As a model, you also do auditions for ads…But I gave myself three years, and I auditioned. I must have done 1,000 auditions in my life.”

Her breakthrough role came in 2019 in the Amazon Prime Video web series Made In Heaven. Since then, Sobhita has starred in acclaimed films and shows such as Major, Ponniyin Selvan 1 and 2, Major, and The Night Manager. She has also been a part of the Hollywood film Monkey Man, which was released in United States last year but still remains unreleased in India.

On the personal front, Sobhita tied the knot with superstar Nagarjuna’s son Naga Chaitanya in December 2024 and entered the Akkineni–Daggubati family. This was his second wedding as he was previously married to Samantha Ruth Prabhu for four years from 2017 to 2021. Samantha’s fans tagged Sobhita “home breaker” after her marriage with Chaitanya.