One of the leading actresses in South Indian cinema, Ragini Dwivedi is mainly known for her work in the Kannada film industry. She was the winner of the Richfeel Femina Miss Beautiful Hair award at the 2009 Pantaloons Femina Miss India contest. After making her debut in a lead role with the 2009 action film Veera Madakari, she went on to act in several successful Kannada films like Kempe Gowda (2011), Shiva (2012), and Ragini IPS (2014), creating her own identity in Kannada cinema. In 2015, she was honoured and awarded the Most Promising Face of Indian Cinema at the India Leadership Conclave in Mumbai.

Early life
Ragini was born in Bangalore in 1990 to an Army General Rakesh Kumar Dwivedi and housewife Rohini. Pyare Lal Dwivedi, Ragini`s grandfather, was a railway guard in Rewari. In the year 2008, fashion designer Prasad Bidapa spotted Ragini`s talent and got her to start modelling for Lakme Fashion Week, Sri Lanka Fashion Week and also for various designers like Rohit Bal, Ritu Kumar, Tarun Tahiliani, Manish Malhotra and Sabyasachi Mukherjee. She emerged as the first runner-up at Femina Miss India contest in 2008. This got her direct entry to the 2009 Pantaloons Femina Miss India in Mumbai, where she was bestowed with the Richfeel Miss Beautiful Hair title.

Movie career
Ragini debuted in the film industry in the year 2009 with the action movie Veera Madakari as the female lead opposite Sudeep, who also was the director. The film was a blockbuster hit and won Ragini the Suvarna Film Award for Best Debut Actress. She had a special appearance in the same year as herself in the comedy drama Gokula. In the next year, she starred in a handful of Kannada movies starting with Shankar IPS opposite Duniya Vijay and Catherine Tresa, but the film received mostly negative reviews from audiences and critics. In Gandedhe, the actress played the daughter of a rich landlord who falls in love with a poor college boy, and the struggles the boy undergoes to convince her stubborn father to accept their relationship. The year also marked Ragini`s debut in Malayalam cinema with the war film Kandahar, under the direction of Major Ravi, starring Mohanlal and Amitabh Bachchan in the lead roles.

The actress joined hands once again with Sudeep for his directorial venture, the action masala Kempe Gowda in 2011, which starred him in the lead opposite Ragini. It was a remake of the superhit Tamil film Singam, and proved to be a blockbuster too. For her performance, Ragini was nominated with the Filmfare Award for Best Actress - Kannada. She then starred in a comedy film Kalla Malla Sulla in the year, opposite V. Ravichandran and Ramesh Aravind. She continued to work in Kannada films in 2012, starting with the psychological thriller Arakshaka that got positive reviews, followed by director Om Prakash Rao`s action movie Shiva opposite Shivarajkumar, which received mixed to positive critical reviews. For Shiva, she won the SIIMA Award for Best Actress (Critics). The year marked her entry into the Tamil industry with P Karthikeyan`s Ariyaan. She also starred in the Malayalam film Face to Face opposite the veteran actor Mammootty, under the direction of V. M. Vinu, but it failed to get favorable reviews from critics. She began the next year with a lead role in the Kannada romantic film Bangari alongside Yogesh, followed by special appearances in the songs `Yakka Nin Magalu` from Victory and `Kaddu Katega` from R... Rajkumar.

She opened 2014 with an important role in Nimirnthu Nil starring Jayam Ravi and Amala Paul in the lead roles, the story of a man who exposes the corrupt activities of government officials. Her other significant release in the year was Ragini IPS, the first Kannada film to be named after an actress, in which Ragini played the lead role of a strict IPS officer with the motive to wipe out corruption from the society. The movie received positive to mixed reviews from critics, with special applause for the actress` performance. For the movie, Ragini was also nominated with the Filmfare Award for Best Actress - Kannada. After featuring in the movie Shivam (2015), she went on to star opposite Diganth in the psychological comedy film Parapancha, under the direction of Krish Joshi. The movie revolves around a group of people who meet at a restaurant to share their problems, and come out relieved with solutions to the issues. Ragini made a special appearance as herself in her other film in the year in Goli Soda, directed by Raghu Jaya. In 2017, she starred opposite Padmaja Rao and Ramesh Bhat in the action drama Veera Ranachandi, directed by Anand P Raju. Her other release in the year includes the multilingual film Amma, under the direction of Faisal Saif, opposite actors like Prashant Narayanan, Rajpal Yadav and Kavita Radheshyam.