Next Stage

Creator of a viral YouTube video, Mithila Palkar says she tried her best to stay away from the spotlight, but it found her anyway. Nikita Sawant chats with the young actor

There’s a childlike energy and enthusiasm to her that’s infectious. When she laughs, you can’t help but join in too. Twenty-three-year-old Mithila Palkar made her mark in the popular web series Girl In The City, but what really established her as a viral sensation was her rendition of a classic Marathi song, Hi Chaal Turu Turu, in the style of Anna Kendrick’s Cups on YouTube. With a couple other web series—Little Things and Official Chukyagiri—to her credit, Palkar is on a roll. Edited excerpts:

When did you first decide you wanted to act?

I think I was always interested in acting. At 12, I was part of my school’s theatre group and that’s when I got my first taste of the stage. The epiphany that I wanted to be an actor came to me that long ago.

You come from a traditional Maharashtrian family. Was it difficult to chase your acting dreams?

To tell you the truth, I tried to run away from acting. It wasn’t the ideal career to pursue from my family’s perspective, so I tried to avoid the whole thing for a while, but I couldn’t run too far or for too long. So I started volunteering with this theatre company called QTP, which runs an annual national youth theatre festival called Thespo. I joined the company in 2012, and in 2013 I ran their festival as one of the directors. That’s when another epiphany hit me: I wasn’t made for backstage work. I craved to be on stage, acting.

How did you land the role of Meera Sehgal in Girl In The City?