Going from an effervescent wedding planner to a ballsy noirheroine, actor-producer Anushka Shamrais the queen of transformation. With a spectrum of new movies in the can this year, including one in which she plays a wrestler , she is ready toshow her true grit, says Megha Mahindru
Anushka Sharma is convincing even without a script. She speaks so fast, and with such earnestness, that in two hours I feel like I know her.
We’re in the living room of her Andheri penthouse, sitting on a black sectional sofa strewn with quirky cushions, beneath a New York-style exposed brick wall. On the wall above our heads is a massive abstract photo frame, and in my vision is Sharma, curled up in skinny jeans and a black tank, with the backdrop of the sun setting on Versova beach. “I don’t understand art, so I don’t have any paintings. For me, that would be a waste of money. Photographs are more real for me, so you’ll find pictures and posters rendered on different surfaces across the house,” she says.
“Waste of money” is not a phrase many actors use. For Sharma, this penny-wise attitude comes from her upbringing as an Army kid, something that has calcified her public image of the terminally honest girl-next-door— the anti-diva in Bollywood who has a hearty laugh and says what she feels like saying.
Today, Sharma is the big-ticket actor who still lives with her family and wouldn’t have it any other way; her 20th-floor apartment is next to ones belonging to her brother and parents. “It’s a good setup. While I’m living with my parents, I still have my apartment. We are a close-knit family, so staying together is the best feeling,” she says.
It’s perfect given her idea of unwinding: “When I’m not shooting, I love spending time at home—talking to my parents, playing with my dog (a frisky Labrador named Dude) and just watching shows like Brain Games with my dad.”
This story is from the May 2016 edition of VOGUE India.
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This story is from the May 2016 edition of VOGUE India.
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