FORGED IN FIRE

The twists and turns in the life of Anveshi Jain, once the most Googled woman in India

- NIRMAL JOVIAL

In January 2019, millions of Indians wanted to know who she was. Promos for the second season of Gandii Baat—an ALT Balaji web series featuring erotic stories from rural India—had just come out, and one of its female leads was already an internet sensation. There were more than three crore searches in just a few hours for Anveshi Jain. She was the most Googled person that month in India.

This long-awaited moment of fame, though, was also one of the lowest points in her life. Reflecting on it now, Jain sees those challenges as life’s way of making her stronger, bolder and wiser.

Recently, her single ‘Banjaare’ crossed one million views on YouTube in its first week. Becoming a musician, in fact, was her first dream. “I was born in a small village near Khajuraho,” she says. “I did not have much exposure to music because my parents were professors, and my father was strict. We had a cassette player, but we were never allowed to use it as he didn’t like music.”

Despite her father’s reservations, Jain began taking part in cultural activities at school. “My mom told him a child needs to be active in various fields,” she says. “I was allowed to take music and kathak classes, but if there was a clash with an exam, I wasn’t allowed to participate.”

When Jain was in class ten, her family bought a car with a stereo system. “I was exposed to the music of Lata [Mangeshkar] ji and Jagjit Singh ji, and I thought, if I ever have the freedom to choose my path, I want to become a singer,” she says.

Acting came into the picture with Titanic. “When I saw Kate Winslet, I thought, ‘How can someone be so beautiful?’” she says. “I thought if I could be anyone in my next life—I didn’t think it was possible in this one—I would want to be an actress. Back then, there were only two career options: engineer or doctor. So, I pursued electrical and electronics engineering.”