REACHING FOR THE STARS

From being theatre breakouts to fronting popular web series, meet the women who are redefining what a rising actor in the industry looks like. They are young, full of spunk and are not the names you will forget easily, finds Kaveree Bamzai

AISHA AHMED

On Ahmed: cotton shirt, ₹2,799, cotton and polyester pants, ₹4,499, mesh blend and imitation leather sneakers, ₹5,299; all United Colors of Benetton. Sterling silver ear clip, ₹1,500, sterling silver nail rings, ₹1,900 (each), sterling silver nail rings, ₹1,200, (each); all Bhavya Ramesh. 22K gunmetal-plated base metal and enamel pendant, ₹6,500, Outhouse

She grew up in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, with her maternal grandparents, far away from the temptation of Mumbai, and was sent to Barnes School in Deolali, Nashik after Class 5. But clearly, Aisha Ahmed was destined to follow her mother Rukhsar Kabir’s footsteps. After her Class 10 board exams, she came to Mumbai to live with her mother and started auditioning while attending acting workshops. She bagged her first feature film when she was just 19, 3 Storeys, directed by Arjun Mukerjee, but that took three years to release. In the meantime, she started doing sketches with Filter Copy, which did so well that she was cast in Adulting, a digital series by Dice Media that chronicles the lives of two twentysomething women in Mumbai. From clinking Beer mugs to living life on a budget, sexual harassment to corporate drudgery, Adulting tackled topics that struck a chord with other twenty-somethings to become something of a cult. Along the way, she’s done music videos, fashion shoots, and become the goto girl for those looking for an actor to play the “young urban girl”.

WHAT’S NEXT: She wants to keep experimenting with roles to avoid being typecast.