Director Alphonse Puthren cast her as Malar, a lecturer, opposite Nivin Pauly in Premam. The film became a cultural phenomenon in Kerala and won her the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut – South. She followed it with Kali (2016) opposite Dulquer Salmaan.
Her Telugu debut, Sekhar Kammula's Fidaa (2017), in which she dubbed her own lines as the feisty Telangana girl Bhanumathi, won her the Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Telugu. Middle Class Abbayi (2017) with Nani was also a hit. She made her official Tamil debut with Diya (2018) and starred opposite Dhanush in Maari 2 (2018). Its song "Rowdy Baby" became a record-breaking viral hit. She played an autistic woman in the Malayalam thriller Athiran (2019) and appeared in NGK (2019) and the Netflix anthology Paava Kadhaigal (2020).
Love Story (2021) with Naga Chaitanya and Shyam Singha Roy (2021) with Nani won her the Filmfare Best Actress – Telugu and Critics awards. Virata Parvam (2022) and the courtroom drama Gargi (2022) brought further Filmfare honours. In Amaran (2024), produced by Kamal Haasan, she played Indhu Rebecca Varghese, wife of Major Mukund Varadarajan. It became the second-highest-grossing Tamil film of 2024 and earned her a seventh Filmfare Award. In Thandel (2025) she reunited with Naga Chaitanya in a story based on Srikakulam fishermen captured by Pakistan.
She made her Hindi debut opposite Junaid Khan in Aamir Khan Productions' Ek Din (1 May 2026), which failed at the box office. She plays Sita opposite Ranbir Kapoor (Ram) and Yash (Ravana) in Nitesh Tiwari's two-part epic Ramayana. Part 1 is scheduled for release on 5 November 2026. She also plays IPS/CBI officer Nithya Reddy in Rajkumar Periyasamy's Om: Chapter 1 with Dhanush and Mammootty, scheduled for 20 November 2026.
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