WHEN AMITA SUMAN flips her hair in front of her shoulder during our conversation, I momentarily lose track of my question. Her screen is tilted low and her mane unfurls like a scroll beyond her Zoom tile. "I thought you wore a wig while playing Inej," I grumble, my own hair slick with oil that probably won't do anything for my shoulder-length curls. "It's real," she grins, swishing her tresses this way and that. "I wanted to change it up before I auditioned for Inej. Some inner voice told me I shouldn't cut it and I'm so glad I listened."
Cascading locks aren't the only feature Suman shares with Inej Ghafa, the deadly but moralistic spy she plays in the fantasy Netflix series Shadow and Bone (2021-2023). Growing up in Bhedihari, a village in Nepal where the locals lived in tin houses, the only electrical device Suman was familiar with was a bulb. One day, a small black-and-white television appeared in her house. Her child's brain couldn't comprehend that the people in front of her eyes weren't miniatures living inside the TV. "It made me realise that's where I wanted to be because it felt like freedom was in that little box."When Suman was seven and her family moved to Brighton, she understood that her route to television was acting. Drama school and a couple of fantasy projects later, she found herself on the set of Shadow and Bone in Inej's breeches and hooded tunic. "That's when the similarities struck," Suman explains. "Inej was taken from her home to a new place where she learned to thrive. I also moved to the UK from Nepal and had to adapt in a very different way." For the 26-year-old, it was her soul connection to the character that really elevated her performance. "Moving countries without knowing how to read, write or speak the language requires having faith in yourself. Inej helped me acknowledge that I did."
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Denne historien er fra May - June 2024-utgaven av VOGUE India.
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Breathe In, Breathe Out
A powerful tool to help you master your nervous system or another biohacking buzzword? SIMONE DHONDY explores the inhalations and exhalations of breathwork
Red Pill, Blue Pill
India's nutraceutical industry is booming thanks to advanced technology, distrust of the medical system and rising vanity. With multivitamins becoming purer and more effective, NIDHI GUPTA finds out if supplements have become the new serum
Sign of the times
No longer do you need to have an answer to, \"What is the significance of this?\" when people point to your new tattoo. ARMAN KHAN discovers that everything is on the table when you get inked temporarily
Return to form
Watching the world's most elite athletes deliver the best performances of their careers rekindled SONAKSHI SHARMA's own love for sports
Dimple, All Day
YOU MAY HAVE WATCHED HER ON THE BIG SCREEN FOR OVER FIVE DECADES, BUT DON'T MAKE THE MISTAKE OF ASSUMING THAT YOU KNOW DIMPLE KAPADIA.
MUSIC, TAKE CONTROL
As someone who had always sought safety in numbers, ALIZA FATMA often wondered what her own company would feel like. The answer arrived unexpectedly when she attended her first-ever music festival, one of the largest in the world, all alone
Let it grow
When we think of hardworking farmers toiling in India's scorching heat, we often think of men, the sweat on their brow, the sinews in their arms. JYOTI KUMARI speaks to four women who are championing the invisible female labour that keeps these fields running
YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE
When armless archer Sheetal Devi set her sights on the Paralympic Games this year, she knew she had a tough journey ahead of her. Luckily, her mother was with her every step of the way.
Beauty and the feast
The appeal of Indian weddings has always been in a sprawling spread. For additional bragging rights, Aditi Dugar recommends going beyond designer tablecloths and monogrammed napkins.
Sweet serendipity
From a scavenger hunt-inspired proposal to a Moroccan-themed baraat, Malvika Raj and Armaan Rai's love story prioritised playfulness throughout their blended celebrations.