A Life Less Ordinary

An outsider who reinvents herself each time Bollywood tries to stereotype her, Anushka Sharma’s story is unusual. The desire to push boundaries has made her an actor and producer to reckon with. She talks to Bazaar about her career and the battles she’s fought along the way.

- Abhilasha Khaitan

Bollywood and its audience fell in love with Anushka Sharma in 2010. Her portrayal of a feisty, fast-speaking Delhi Punjabi girl in her breakout film Band Baaja Baaraat helped make box-office magic. Now, the rom-com was only her third movie. It should have been tempting to repeat the tried-and-tested character in subsequent projects. But Anushka, from the get-go, was wary of the formulaic trap “actors can find themselves caught in” and was determined to push her boundaries as an artiste.

Appropriately, I meet her on a day she has devoted to promoting her new movie, Sui Dhaaga-Made in India, in which her role, says Anushka, is far removed from anything she could have imagined herself playing. The efficient machinery at Yash Raj Films—the production house that selected this little-known model from Bengaluru for its eventual blockbuster, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (2008), headlining reigning superstar Shah Rukh Khan—has found us a tastefully done-up actor’s dressing room for the interview.Anushka, happily for me, opts for the comfortable sofa for our chat. There is a thoughtful air about Anushka. She rarely answers without pausing to consider the question.

There is a purposefulness, too, which manifests in her raison d’être: Change. That, for her, means discarding all past baggage of success and identity. “If I were to hold on to that, I would only be doing roles like the one in Band Bajaa Baaraat. For me, breaking out of those shackles is very important. It brings about a change in you as a person and grounds you in a healthy way.”