MISS ROLE MODEL
At 28, Anushka Sharma is an acclaimed actress and producer of two films. What makes the
Phillauri girl tick?
For her upcoming film, Phillauri, Anushka Sharma hung horizontally off a harness and floated around on a hoverboard and other specially made contraptions. She isn’t playing a stunt queen but a young ghost whose spirit is invoked after a century.
In her nine years in Bollywood, Sharma can boast of having worked with the biggest studios, and having starred in the second and third highest grossers of Hindi cinema — P.K. and Sultan. Both benefitted from the presence of a superstar Khan, but Sharma was more than arm candy. “I have created a reputation—people know that if I don’t have something of my own to do, I won’t do it (the film),” says Sharma.
Saying no comes easy to Sharma, who is known in her family for her stubbornness. The trait comes in handy when she has to defend her characters, from Aarfa in Sultan to Alizeh in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. “Never have I done a role that I have not been convinced about,” she says. “It is exciting for me to play somebody whose point of view is different from my own and to humanise that person. You can’t keep playing characters close to who you are. You will then have only that many roles to do.” She stands by her choices too. “I have not regretted a single decision; it was all to reach here.” It’s a plum position to be in. At 28, she is an acclaimed actress and producer of two films. Would she some day take up writing and direction, like Greta Gerwig, whose Frances
Ha is one of Sharma’s favourites? “I have already started writing down ideas,” she says. Just don’t expect scripts to materialise anytime soon. “I had done this aptitude test and came out as someone who can’t be rushed into things,” says Sharma. “I can’t be someone who meets deadlines.”
You play a ghost. Who’d you like to haunt?
Nelson Mandela. Where did that strength come from? How was there so much clarity with all the mayhem around him? How did he continue to pursue something so difficult? Favourite on-screen ghost Casper!
“YOU CAN’T KEEP PLAYING CHARACTERS CLOSE TO WHO YOU ARE. YOU WILL THEN HAVE ONLY THAT MANY ROLES TO DO.”