Surbhi Puranik, known by her stage name Surbhi is an Indian actress who predominantly appears in Tamil and Telugu films. She was born in Delhi and made her Tamil film debut in 2013 film Ivan Veramathiri.
While undertaking a bachelor's degree in Fine Arts from the College of Art, Delhi, Surbhi became interested in a career in films and took up modelling assignments as well as signing up to an acting course at Imago Acting School, where she was taught by Barry John and Manoj Bajpai.
She made her first film appearance in Saravanan's second film Ivan Veramathiri (2013) featuring Vikram Prabhu. After being recommended to seek acting opportunities in the South Indian film industry, Surbhi successfully auditioned for Ivan Veramathiri and was selected to play the leading female role of Malini, a cute and timid girl. During the making of the film, the director gave particular praise to Surbhi for her dedication in learning the dialogues in Tamil and putting in extra effort to ensure her diction was correct. The film opened in December 2013 to positive reviews and performed well at the box office. Surbhi's performance was praised by critics, who noted that "her smile is arresting" and that "she is perfectly cast and brightens up all the scenes she appears in with her bubbly, innocent character and seems totally natural and fresh." She was subsequently nominated in the Best Female Debutant category at the Vijay Awards and South Indian International Movie Awards.
Surbhi was next seen in a supporting role in Velraj's directorial debut Velaiyilla Pattathari (2014), and portrayed the role of an ex-smoker who is saved by the lung donation of the lead character Dhanush's mother. She shot for the film in early 2014 and noted that it was a "special cameo appearance". The film opened in July 2014 to positive reviews and was one of the most successful Tamil films of the year.
She also briefly shot for a role in Suseenthiran's sports drama film Jeeva but pulled out due to exam commitments, and thus was only seen in one scene in the film. She also appeared with Sundeep Kishan in Beeruva directed by Kanmani.
In June 2015 she signed to appear in a Telugu film Express Raja starring opposite Sharwanand and directed by Merlapaka Gandhi. Later in September 2015 she signed up for another Telugu film, Gentleman opposite Nani.