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Lace blouse, Versace. Kaftan dress, Olivia Dar. Sandals, Aquazzura. Collar necklace, Suhani Pittie. Silver necklace, Amrapali. Ring, Gucci
Image: Errikos Andreou; Styled by Anaita Shroff Adajania
Jacquard dress, Gucci. On left hand: Ring, Gucci. On right hand: Rings, Curio Cottage. Ankle boots, Aquazzura
Image: Errikos Andreou; Styled by Anaita Shroff Adajania
Shirt, Chalayan. Embroidered skirt, Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla. Belt, Jessie Western. Earrings, Van Peterson. On right hand: Ring, Gucci. On left hand: Rings, Curio Cottage. Shoes, Sanchita
Image: Errikos Andreou; Styled by Anaita Shroff Adajania
Swimsuit, skirt; both Michael Kors Collection. Pumps, Rupert Sanderson. Earrings, Deepa Gurnani. Rings, Curio Cottage. Metal cuff, Dior. Enamel bangles, Hermès. Wooden bangles, AM:PM
Image: Errikos Andreou; Styled by Anaita Shroff Adajania
Lace blouse, Zara. Printed blouse, skirt; both Etro. Felt hat, Maison Michel. Silver earrings, turquoise ring; both Van Peterson. Necklace, Deepa Gurnani. Shoes, Christian Louboutin
Image: Errikos Andreou; Styled by Anaita Shroff Adajania
Lace top, sheer dress, both Versace. Shirt, Tod’s. Boots, Anya Hindmarch. Felt hat, Maison Michel. Earrings, Deepa Gurnani. On right hand: Ring, Gucci. On left hand: Silver ring, Curio Cottage
Image: Errikos Andreou; Styled by Anaita Shroff Adajania
Anushka Sharma is convincing even without a script. She speaks so fast, and with such earnestness, that in two hours I feel like I know her.
We’re in the living room of her Andheri penthouse, sitting on a black sectional sofa strewn with quirky cushions, beneath a New York-style exposed brick wall. On the wall above our heads is a massive abstract photo frame, and in my vision is Sharma, curled up in skinny jeans and a black tank, with the backdrop of the sun setting on Versova beach. “I don’t understand art, so I don’t have any paintings. For me, that would be a waste of money. Photographs are more real for me, so you’ll find pictures and posters rendered on different surfaces across the house,” she says.
“Waste of money” is not a phrase many actors use. For Sharma, this penny-wise attitude comes from her upbringing as an Army kid, something that has calcified her public image of the terminally honest girl-next-door—the anti-diva in Bollywood who has a hearty laugh and says what she feels like saying.
Today, Sharma is the big-ticket actor who still lives with her family and wouldn’t have it any other way; her 20th-floor apartment is next to ones belonging to her brother and parents. “It’s a good setup. While I’m living with my parents, I still have my apartment. We are a close-knit family, so staying together is the best feeling,” she says.
It’s perfect given her idea of unwinding: “When I’m not shooting, I love spending time at home—talking to my parents, playing with my dog (a frisky Labrador named Dude) and just watching shows like Brain Games with my dad.”
Sharma calls her older brother, Karnesh, her “best friend” in the industry. In 2014, their lack of Bollywood blood didn’t stop the siblings from launching a production house together. “We make a good team. We share the same tastes and are always on the same page,” she says.
Titled Clean Slate Films, the production house was launched to showcase content-led material by newer talents. “It’s a collaborative effort. She handles the creative side of it and I look after the logistics,” says Karnesh, who gave up a job in the merchant navy to join the movie business. “The only way we are different is that she talks too fast and I’m a slow thinker,” he jokes.
LEADING LADY
That Sharma is one of the youngest actresses in the production business hints at her path-breaker tendencies—she’s ready to write her own rules (and scripts) and live by them. “People asked why I was doing it in the prime of my career. But we only say this about actresses because we assume that they need to do it to find work towards the end of their careers. I’m not into production to make films that glorify me or to replicate films that have worked at the box office; I’m doing it because I want to create quality cinema,” she argues.
She doesn’t seek validation in awards either. Despite portraying strong leads in films, Sharma, so far, has only won awards for supporting roles. “I genuinely don’t believe in awards. It’s rewarding enough that a film like NH10 (2015) got the response that it did, and that because of its success I’m now producing a film with Fox Star Studios, which is funny, romantic and poles apart from NH10,” she says about Phillauri, which stars Life Of Pi actor Suraj Sharma and Punjabi actor Diljit Dosanjh alongside her.
Sharma’s film roles amply demonstrate her range—a city girl working at an MNC (NH10), a glamorous jazz singer (Bombay Velvet), and a righteous scribe (PK), among others. “My characters are wildly different, but they have one thing in common—most of them are that of an independent, successful, working girl,” she says, “I pick a film that has a strong plot. I’d never pick one to piggyback on a big actor or director’s name.” Her decision to turn producer with NH10, an unconventional, dark action-thriller with a strong female lead, speaks volumes about her intrepid nature. “I’m not a product of how people want to see me and how I should be or ought to be. I am what I am. I’ve never done anything just because it has worked. I love taking risks and following my conviction,” she says.
You can’t blame her. Her life is the typical Bollywood tale we usually see in movies. And the way it’s panned out seems so unreal that sometimes even she can’t believe she’s living it. “If you push me back 10 years and told me all this would happen to you, I would have said, ‘Shut up! Are you crazy? It’s impossible!’”
It’s the reason Sharma has no bucket list before she turns 30 or, for that matter, an immediate plan for her 28th birthday this month.
She was born in 1988, the same year Aamir Khan’s Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak released. She was a year-old toddler when Salman Khan appeared in Maine Pyar Kiya (1989), and five when Shah Rukh Khan achieved mainstream success as an anti-hero in Baazigar (1993). Today, at 28, she has played the leading lady to Bollywood’s powerhouse trinity—and is the only actor from her generation to do so.
But not all is fate and stars. After a debut with Yash Raj Films and Shah Rukh Khan, which most newbies can only aspire to, Sharma signed up for Band Baaja Baaraat (2010), a romantic comedy by a newbie director, featuring a newbie actor. Turns out, it wasn’t her Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (2008) star pairing that catapulted her to fame but her convincing role as a gabby wedding planner opposite Ranveer Singh. “It was a strong script and a unique language; I had to take it,” she says.
POWER PLAY
Right now, she’s only focused on doing her bit for what she calls one of her most challenging roles so far. For director Ali Abbas Zafar’s July release, Sultan, opposite Salman Khan, the preternaturally petite Sharma is buffing up to play a Haryanvi-spouting wrestler. “She’s one committed actor who can pull off the role in terms of sheer performance—she physically transformed herself in six weeks,” says Abbas Zafar. It’s a transformation that is hard to imagine but, going by the first look, Sharma’s 10-hour training seems to have paid off. “I had to go through intense body training to build definition and muscle. I’m not heavily built, so I knew I was working with a disadvantage—I had to beat people’s perception that all wrestlers are huge. While researching, I found that many female wrestlers were built like me. They’re not huge, and participate according to their weight categories.”
On YouTube, Sharma’s powerslam clip with her trainer has gone viral. “Wrestling is a lot about technique. It’s a strategy game about finding your opponent’s weakness,” she says. With new moves—and a new vocabulary (“dhobi pachad is my favourite”)—she’s getting ready for the win.
VOICE OF REASON
Sharma’s mettle and honesty have won her a legion of fans, or Anushkaholics, as she calls them, last measured by her recent Twitter milestone of seven million followers.
In an earlier interview with Vogue, she opened up about her anxiety issues, confessing that she takes medication for it. Previously, she has also been vocal about topics ranging from censorship to sexism and differential pay for men and women in the industry, even before Patricia Arquette brought it global attention at the Academy Awards. “I loved what Chris Rock said at this year’s Oscars: ‘There’s no real reason for there to be a men and a women category in acting. It’s not track and field.’ It’s so right,” she adds.
Like most famous people, living in the tabloid glare has at times turned Sharma’s private life into a spectator sport, but Sharma has managed to resist controversy. She’s also lucky to have an oddly forgiving audience. Even after a few thick-headed quips in the public domain, she continues to have a no-guff reputation and isn’t seen as a ditzy star; she incorrectly named the chief minister of Maharashtra on Karan Johar’s controversial chat show and committed online harakiri by condoling the loss of ‘ABJ Kalam Azad’ instead of APJ Abdul Kalam on Twitter—the kind of mistakes that turned actor Alia Bhatt into a meme minefield.
When Sharma’s lips inflamed the interest of the paparazzi, she came out to explain. “I have nothing to hide. So when I spoke about my lip job, a lot of people called me brave for coming out. But I did what I had to [for my role in Bombay Velvet]. I’m not going to lie and say I didn’t; I had to take ownership. I wanted fans to know that I’m human and not perfect,” she says.
When her relationship with cricketer Virat Kohli played out amidst media frenzy, the Twitterati blamed her for the cricketer’s bad play. But Sharma continued to stand tall and cheer on. “I try not to get affected by trolls, because that can really mess me up. I make sure they don’t determine the way I lead my life,” she says. Even when the couple broke up, paparazzi interest remained, but Sharma worked at hitting the refresh button, constantly updating and talking about newer things, like her upcoming film with Karan Johar (Ae Dil Hai Mushkil).
In just a few hours I know Sharma’s a big animal lover who loved shooting this Vogue cover with stallions, and wouldn’t think twice before publicly slamming a politician for animal cruelty. I know that she’s a vegetarian too, yet she’s savvy enough not to proselytise about animal rights. I also know that she hates Starbucks, finds shopping tedious, binge-watches Girls, eats two dinners on most days and is probably the only 28-year-old who swears by Cerelac. “Just try Wheat Apple Cerelac—I promise, you’ll love it.”
Photographed by Errikos Andreou; Styled by Anaita Shroff Adajania; Hair: Gabriel Georgiou/Anima Creative Management; Make-up: Rosario Belmonte/Anima Creative Management; Production: Temple Road Productions, Divya Jagwani; Props: Bindiya and Narii; Photographer’s agency: DEU Creative Management; Assistant stylists: Priyanka Kapadia, Fabio Immediato; Photographer’s assistant: Sajna Sivan; Production assistants: Saakshi Kaushik, Aishwarya Reddy; Location courtesy: Amateur Riders Club, Mahalaxmi, Mumbai
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