Anandhi

Career

She made her debut with the Telugu film Maruthi Dasari's coming of age story Bus Stop (2012), winning critical acclaim for her performance as Seema, a flirt. Featuring alongside an ensemble cast including Prince, Kanna and fellow debut actress Sri Divya, the film opened in November 2012 to a positive critical and commercial response at the box office. A critic noted "she has magnetic looks and can be promising if planned her career properly", while another wrote she "totally rocks her character of a femme fatale with judgement issues and a good heart." Within two days of release of the film, she was offered the lead role opposite Varun Sandesh in his next venture Priyathama Neevachata Kushalama and began filming later in the year. The film released in March 2013 to negative reviews, though a critic claimed "the saving grace for the film is performance of the lead pair - Varun Sandesh and Hasika", adding that Hasika "looks traditional and has put up a decent show as well."

Rakshita was next seen in Vijay Maddala's next directorial venture Green Signal, where she appeared alongside newcomer Revanth, though the film garnered negative reviews. In early 2013, she had also signed on to appear in the Tamil film, Poriyaalan alongside Harish Kalyan, written by Manimaran. During production, the scope of the film became larger after it was announced that director Vetrimaaran had chosen to invest in the venture as a co-producer. She won positive reviews for her performance, and the film had a moderate run commercially. The actress then went on to sign another Tamil project, Prabhu Solomon's directorial venture Kayal, in which she plays the title role. The director decided to rechristen her as Anandhi from Rakshita for the film, and she was selected after auditioning twice before impressing Solomon. In the film, she portrayed a young village girl who goes searching for her lover, only to be caught up in the midst of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami and upon release, won critical acclaim for her portrayal. Rediff.com noted she "was the perfect choice" and that she "seems so ordinary, so real, that you find yourself rooting for her compelling love", while Sify.com wrote she delivered "a truly excellent performance". Likewise, a critic from The Hindu noted "fresh-faced Anandhi looks lovely, and she performs pretty well too", while the actress went on to be nominated for several Best Debut Actress awards for 2014, including at the Vijay Awards.

In 2015, Anandhi's first release was in A. Sarkunam's Chandi Veeran produced by Bala, in which she portrayed the romantic interest of Atharvaa's character. Anandhi then worked on the adult comedy flick Trisha Illana Nayanthara (2015) starring working alongside G. V. Prakash Kumar. She won positive reviews for her role of a young woman who constantly wards of lecherous attention from Prakash Kumar's character, with Sify.com adding Anandhi "looks cute and might go places if she picks the right scripts". Post-release, Anandhi revealed her displeasure at working with the director and revealed that she was led to believe that the film would be a "cute love story" and not an "adult comedy". The film, however, became a large commercial success at the box office and Anandhi later helped promote the release of the film's Telugu version. Her next release will be Vetrimaaran's crime drama film Visaranai that will see her playing a Telugu girl. Besides, she is working on the action film Pandigai and the Prabu Solomon production, Faisal.