Esha Gupta "I Wouldn't Be Cool With A Stay-At-Home Husband."

Say hello to Tinseltown’s new Miss Thang. With three major movies waiting to pop, and her single status clarified (rumour mill, you may now stop churning!), the girl is ready to roar in every sense of the word...

- Saumyaa Vohra

She’s just landed in Delhi (her hood) and the ‘welcome home’ calls have already started pouring in. But Esha chirrups through each phone call in the sweltering heat, making plans for the evening (“Which rarely go past 10 or 11 pm on most days, but I’ve just come home, so I’ll make an exception!”) Then, she tucks away all other thoughts and settles to talk to us for the next hour, unfazed and indefatigable, about everything under the glaring, Delhi sun. Well, except her upcoming releases Rustom, Rangoon, and Hera Pheri 3 (about which NDAs keep her tightlipped). But when it comes to the stuff we really wanna know—about whether she really is engaged (“I’m really not, I swear!” she cries), what kind of teenager she used to be, and about whether it’s true that acting would’ve never happened if she had realized her dream of being a chef— she’s only too happy to banter. “That one’s legit. And it was because my biggest obstacle was being vegetarian!” Esha laughs, talking about how she’d always wanted to be in hotel management and cook for people, but she figured the scope was pretty limited when you were the kind of vegetarian who wouldn’t touch meat. “The idea of working at an all-veg restaurant? Not so hot,” she smiles. “So, I gave it up...and studied law! Only Wikipedia seems to know that about me—most people sort of gape when they find out.” But she is, indeed, certified to get legal on your *ss—and somewhere post getting that degree and wafting about, she hit paydirt.