Keerthy Suresh is revelling in channelling her inner gangster. The actor steps into the role of an underworld matriarch in her series debut, Netflix’s crime saga Akka. The series unfolds in the world of an 800-year-old sisterhood, where women are the key operators of a crime syndicate and the gold trade. For Suresh, exploring the tropes of a criminal warlord through a feminine lens offered an opportunity to stretch her range as an actor. “What I loved about Akka is the world,” Suresh says. “It is set in this fictitious world that looks very real. When you say gangster, one perceives a different kind of vibe: smoke, guns and lots of energy. But with these ‘Akkas’, it is the duality. They rule kingdoms on one hand and are involved in underworld activities on the other. It made the whole space intriguing.”
While the series, directed by Dharmaraj Shetty, has received mixed reviews, Suresh has drawn praise for her portrayal of Bhavani, the formidable yet moralistic ruler of the fictional South Indian region of Perunuru. The actor says the character demanded an entirely different register from Ponni, her role in the Tamil film Saani Kaayidham. “Ponni was an ordinary woman pushed to the extreme; she was raw and rugged, while Bhavani’s strength is quiet, deliberate and entrenched in power struggles.”
Her command over the long-form narrative as Bhavani marks another step in a deliberate career shift, glimpses of which were visible in Dorothy. Suresh had an extended cameo as the titular character, who nevertheless served as the emotional anchor of the story. For her, the significance of a role lies less in its screen time than in the character’s choices and complexities. “It’s always nice to get to play characters who matter irrespective of the screen time,” she says. “Even if I’m playing the same kind of character, what matters to me is how different it is in terms of the role, the vulnerability and the layers. In Dorothy, the story [LGBTQ representation in Tamil Nadu], which needed to be told, mattered to me the most.”
Suresh is no stranger to the spotlight. Having started out as a child artiste in Malayalam films, she went on to play leading roles in Malayalam, Telugu and Tamil cinema. With hits such as Idhu Enna Maayam, Rajini Murugan and Nenu Sailaja to her credit, her career-defining moment came with the Telugu film Mahanati, a biographical account of one of South India’s most celebrated stars, Savitri. Her performance won her the National Award for Best Actress. But critical acclaim also brought the burden of expectations, and Suresh has since had to contend with being typecast. “Until I got Mahanati, there were not many meaty characters coming my way. But that one film changed my life. People have their perspective on how they wish to see you and the kind of roles they offer you. Though everything started changing eventually, the problem is I cannot keep giving a Mahanati every single time,” she says.
Suresh is keen to move beyond the benchmark Mahanati set. The challenge, she says, lies in balancing that experimentation across industries and formats. “It has been a great journey, with a lot of struggles and a lot of learning,” she says.
After Akka, Suresh will be seen in the Tamil film, Sathyavan Savithri, and the Telugu film, Rowdy Janardhana, opposite Vijay Deverakonda, both slated for release in December. These will be followed by Vidudala in January 2027. “All these are extremely different kinds of characters, and what I love most is juggling between industries, switching between the different kinds of metres you have to perform. The excitement is to go beyond what I really want to do.”
Asked what she enjoys beyond the screen, Suresh says she has a penchant for writing and hopes to direct a film someday. “It will take a while, but yeah, it is in the process,” she says.