Lakshmi Rai (born May 5, 1989) is an Indian film actress and model from Belgaum, Karnataka, predominantly appearing in Malayalam and Tamil films.
While most of her Tamil releases performed poorly at the box office, she rose to fame with the popular Malayalam-language films Annan Thambi (2008), 2 Harihar Nagar (2009), Chattambinadu and Evidam Swargamanu (2009), establishing herself as one of the leading actresses in the Malayalam film industry.
Lakshmi Rai initially worked as a model before entering the film industry. She appeared in several television ads such as Sylcon Footwears, Josco Jewellers and Emmanuel Silks.
She made her acting debut in 2005 in the Tamil film Karka Kasadara. Subsequently she appeared in a number of unsuccessful Tamil films, including Kundakka Mandakka (2005), Dharmapuri (2006), and Nenjai Thodu (2007).
In 2008, she began working in more serious films such as the drama film Velli Thirai, in which she played herself, and the action thriller Dhaam Dhoom. Her portrayal of a lawyer in the latter garnered her a Filmfare Award nomination in the category for Best Supporting Actress.
She made her debut in Malayalam in 2007, starring in Rock & Roll opposite Mohanlal,she was noticed by the film field although film was a commercial failure. But she followed it up with several successful films such as Annan Thambi, 2 Harihar Nagar (2009), Evidam Swargamanu (2009) opposite Mohanlal, and Chattambinadu (2009) opposite Mammootty.