Mithila Palkar
Verified Macro Creator — Streaming & FilmActor and singer
She failed her first audition and was given a backstage job instead. That job introduced her to the writer of Little Things — and a Marathi cup song did the rest. Two Filmfare OTT Awards later, 3.9M follow her.
About Mithila Palkar
Mithila Palkar's career began with an audition she did not get. In 2013, fresh out of a Bachelor of Mass Media at MMK College in Bandra, she auditioned for Quasar Padamsee's theatre company. She was not cast. What Padamsee did instead was give her a backstage job — managing Thespo, the company's annual theatre festival. It was at Thespo that she met a writer named Dhruv Sehgal, who asked her to audition for a YouTube satire show called News Darshan. Five years later the two of them were the leads of Little Things on Netflix. She was born in Mumbai on 11 January 1993 into a Marathi family with no actors in it. The family lived in Vasai; she and her sister eventually moved in with their maternal grandparents in Dadar to cut the commute. Her grandfather did not approve of the acting plan. Her sister went on to take a PhD in neuroscience. Palkar describes herself as having been a nerd at school, though she was in dramatics, dance and singing throughout, and trained in Hindustani classical music under the Marathi singer Varsha Bhave. In March 2016 she recorded the Marathi song 'Hi Chal Turu Turu', originally sung by Jaywant Kulkarni, in the cup-song style Anna Kendrick had made famous in Pitch Perfect. She posted it on her own YouTube channel. It has since been watched 7.5 million times, and it made her famous in about a week. The screen work was already underway. Girl in the City for Bindass came in 2016, and so did Little Things for Pocket Aces — a low-key, small-scale series about a young couple sharing a Mumbai flat, which Netflix bought outright in 2018 and carried through three more seasons to a final one in October 2021. It won her two Filmfare OTT Awards, for Best Actress in a Comedy Series and the critics' award in the same category. Film ran alongside it. Her debut was the 2014 Marathi short Majha Honeymoon, followed by Katti Batti in 2015. Muramba in 2017 won her the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut in Marathi. In 2018 she took her first lead in a Hindi film, Karwaan, opposite Irrfan Khan and Dulquer Salmaan. Netflix's Chopsticks followed in 2019, where she played an under-confident girl named Nirma after the washing-powder brand, and then Tribhanga in 2021, directed by Renuka Shahane alongside Kajol and Tanvi Azmi. She has also done theatre — Tunni Ki Kahani and Aaj Rang Hai with the group Aarambh in 2017 — and endorsed Maggi, Tata Tea and Zomato. Today her Instagram account, @mipalkarofficial, has 3.9 million followers across 2,348 posts, and the YouTube channel where the cup song still lives has 179,000 subscribers. Ten years on, that video remains the most-watched thing on it. Sources: English Wikipedia (biography, filmography, awards, accessed August 2026); her verified Instagram and YouTube profiles (counts and video views read on 15 August 2026); official platform channels for the linked trailers. Photos: Bollywood Hungama, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Career Journey
The audition she failed
After graduating in mass media from MMK College, Bandra, she auditioned for Quasar Padamsee's theatre company and was turned down — but given a backstage job running the Thespo theatre festival. There she met the writer Dhruv Sehgal, who asked her to audition for a YouTube show.
The cup song, and Little Things
In March she posted a version of the Marathi song 'Hi Chal Turu Turu' performed in Pitch Perfect's cup-song style; it went viral and has since crossed 7.5 million views. The same year brought Girl in the City for Bindass and the first season of Little Things for Pocket Aces.
A Filmfare debut award, and Karwaan
Muramba won her the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut in Marathi. Netflix bought Little Things in 2018 and released its second season that October, and she took her first lead in a Hindi film with Karwaan, opposite Irrfan Khan and Dulquer Salmaan.
Chopsticks, Tribhanga and two OTT awards
She led Netflix's Chopsticks in 2019 and appeared in Renuka Shahane's Tribhanga alongside Kajol in 2021. Little Things closed with its fourth season in October 2021, winning her Filmfare OTT Awards for Best Actress in a Comedy Series and the critics' award in the same category.
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FAQs
Who is Mithila Palkar?
Mithila Palkar, born 11 January 1993 in Mumbai, is an Indian actor and singer. She became widely known for a Marathi cup-song cover she posted in 2016, and for playing Kavya in Little Things across four seasons — first for Pocket Aces, then on Netflix.
What is the Mithila Palkar cup song?
In March 2016 she recorded the Marathi song 'Hi Chal Turu Turu', originally sung by Jaywant Kulkarni, in the cup-song percussion style popularised by Anna Kendrick in Pitch Perfect, and posted it to her own YouTube channel. It has since passed 7.5 million views.
What awards has Mithila Palkar won?
A Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut in Marathi for Muramba (2017), and two Filmfare OTT Awards for Little Things — Best Actress in a Comedy Series and the critics' award in the same category.
Latest News
Little Things ended with its fourth and final season on Netflix, and she has continued in film and brand work — her Marathi cup song, posted in March 2016, has now passed 7.5 million views.
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