She spent her childhood in Saurashtra, Gujarat. Laxmi's first full-length feature film debut was in , at age 17 with the Tamil film Karka Kasadara. All pictures courtesy: Instagram and YouTube. Raai Laxmi made her full-fledged Bollywood debut in a leading role, with the erotic-thriller Julie 2, which was written, co-produced and directed by Deepak Shivdasani and produced by Vijay Nair. Released on November 24, , it was Laxmi's 50th film as an actress.
Raai Laxmi was cast in Karka Kasadara by director R. Udayakumar, who was impressed by her performance in the short film Valmiki. A series of Tamil film ventures followed including the comedy Kundakka Mandakka opposite R. Parthiban, Perarasu's action-masala flick Dharmapuri , and the romance film Nenjai Thodu Raai Laxmi transitioned into more serious roles with the drama Velli Thirai, in which she played herself and Jeeva's directorial Dhaam Dhoom, which was an action-thriller.
She received rave reviews for her portrayal of a lawyer in the film, which led to a Filmfare Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. One particular review by a leading entertainment website noted how she was able to effortlessly play a court professional caught in a web of drug smuggling. Raai Laxmi's subsequent Tamil films in , include Muthirai, Vaamanan, in which she played a glamorous supermodel and Naan Avanillai 2.
She followed that up by having a special appearance in a song in the film Pen Singam and the role of a cowgirl in a wild west parody Irumbukkottai Murattu Singam starring actor, choreographer and filmmaker Lawrence Raghavendra.
She bagged two high profile Tamil projects - the horror-thriller Kanchana opposite Lawrence Raghavendra, which would go on to spawn three sequels, and the action-thriller Mankatha, which starred Ajith Kumar and was directed by Venkat Prabhu. Critics lauded her performance of a character with grey shades in the film.
