Varalaxmi Sarathkumar is an Indian movie actress who is predominantly seen in Tamil, Kannada, and Malayalam movies. She made her movie debut in 2012 with Tamil movie Podaa Podi for which she won the Vijay Award for Best Debut Actress and the Edison Award for Best Debut Actress.

Early Life
Born on the 3rd of March, 1985 in Bengaluru, Karnataka, Varalaxmi is the eldest among the four siblings. She is the daughter of actor R. Sarathkumar and Chaya, who divorced in 2000. Her father, however, married actress Raadhika in 2001, with whom he has a son named Rahul. Varalaxmi has a younger sister Pooja, a half-brother Rahul, and a stepsister Rayanne Hardy, daughter of Raadhika Sarathkumar and her ex-husband Richard Hardy.

Varalaxmi graduated in microbiology from Hindustan Arts and Science College, after which she pursued a master`s degree in Business Management from the University of Edinburgh. She then joined Anupam Kher`s acting school, Actor Prepares, before joining the film industry. She is also a trained Bharatanatyam, jazz, hip-hop, and ballet dancer, and was a part of dance group Hot Shoe Dance Company for eight years.

Acting Career
After completing her training at the acting school, Varalaxmi was offered Vignesh Shivan`s romantic drama Podaa Podi where she played the role of a London-based dancer. Although she was signed in the year 2008, the movie took four years to be completed and released only in 2012. The debutante`s performance was well-received and garnered a lot of critical acclaim. For her performance, she went on to win the Vijay Award for Best Debut Actress and the Edison Award for Best Debut Actress.

The same year, she was cast in Sundar C`s Madha Gaja Raja opposite Vishal Krishna Reddy, but due to financial issues was not released. As on 2016, the movie has still remained unreleased. Given that the movie remained unreleased Varalaxmi`s second release was Kannada movie Maanikya in 2014, where she was cast opposite Sudeep . Maanikya became one of the most commercially successful Kannada movies of 2014. After her second successful performance, she was seen in Bala Pazhanisaamy`s 2016 release Tharai Thappattai, where she essayed the role of a karakattam dancer, for which she had to lose 10 kgs.

The year 2017 saw the actress appearing in a number of critically acclaimed and commercially successful movies in both Tamil and Malayalam cinema. The first of these was the neo-noir action thriller Vikram Vedha (2017), where Varalaxmi appeared in a central role alongside R. Madhavan, Vijay Sethupathi and Shraddha Srinath. The film was universally well-received and has since went on to become a modern classic. Following this, she appeared in the Kollywood action thriller Nibunan (2017), mystery thriller Sathya (2017), the Malayalam period drama Kaattu (2017) and the action thriller Masterpiece (2017)

The crime thriller Echcharikkai (2018), Sandakozhi 2 (2018), the action comedy Madha Gaja Raja (2018) and the Vijay starrer Sarkar (2018) are among Varalaxmi`s other notable acting credits in recent times. Her 2018 release includes Sarkar. Her other releases include Neeya 2, Tenali Ramakrishna BA BL and Velvet Nagaram. Her 2021 releases include Krack and Chasing.