A Star Is Born - Sanya Malhotra

A couple of months ago, a video of Sanya Malhotra emerged over the Internet. It shows the talented young lass busting a move or two to Rihanna’s hit single, ‘Work’ featuring Drake along with her ‘Dangal’ co-star Fatima Sana Shaikh. As the camera spans between the two, it eventually focuses on just Malhotra. She looks calm, collected and completely in her elements. It’s hard to look away from Malhotra as she effortlessly and gracefully pulls off her dance routine. It looks as though she was born to do this. Sanya Malhotra has hit Bollywood like a hurricane!

Soon after that video went viral, another video of Malhotra dancing to Drake’s ‘Signs’ started doing the rounds. This video set in black and grey features Malhotra in yoga pants, a casual hoodie and a top-knot high bun. There is no ostentatious show about it, she looks at ease with her surroundings and she sure does put up quite a show. Her dance steps seamlessly transition from one to the next and her moves seem to have a fluidity all of its own. The world may have recognised her as Babita Kumari, the wrestler in ‘Dangal’ but her story had actually started off as a young and graceful dancer trying to make her mark in the world of dancing. Most people are unaware that Malhotra is a well trained ballet dancer. Today, the talented actress also has knowledge about pre-production, post-production, background score and VFX.

As is with every Aamir Khan film, the anticipation and expectations are unparalleled. His films have a quality of being so realistic, that expecting anything less than extraordinary never occurs to us. When the posters and trailers of ‘Dangal’ hit our screens and national dailies, we knew Khan was going to deliver yet another masterpiece and deliver he did. When the film based on the life of Haryanvi wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat and his daughters who he trained to become professional wrestlers finally hit the theatres, the audience as a whole had collectively found a new-found admiration not just for Aamir Khan but for the three other actors in particular – Sanya Malhotra, Fatima Sana Shaikh and Zaira Wasim. The Indian film industry had been gifted with three spectacular talents who became overnight sensations and Sanya Malhotra from Delhi, was one of them.