STAR QUALITY
Banita lands starring role in Bollywood film
ASTUDENT has made her Bollywood debut after landing a starring role in a major film. Banita Sandhu, from Caerleon in Newport, stars in Indian film October, scheduled for release next month.
The film’s first trailer was uploaded to Youtube just over a week ago but has already amassed more than 20 million views.
Although about to make her mark on the Indian film industry, the former Rougemont School pupil has yet to finish her undergraduate degree in London.
“It’s been crazy,” Banita, 20, said. “I’m a bit protected from the madness because I’m spending a lot of my time in London studying.
“Even my director jokes about it , saying ‘how did a girl who grew up in a small part of Wales end up here?’ How did this happen?”
Banita has been acting since the age of 11, after telling her parents she wanted to be in Coronation Street – her favourite TV soap.
She joined a drama club in Cardiff and got her first role soon afterwards in Painting Humanity, a BBC documentary by Welsh director Chris Morris.
“My parents have supported me all the way, but only on condition that I also continued with my education,” she said. “They wanted me to have a plan B.”
Banita secured a place at King’s College, London, to study English literature in 2016.
In her first year she was cast in a TV commercial for Vodafone in India. She said her parents cautiously gave her permission to fly out to Malaysia for filming.
The commercial was a success and was followed by another for Wrigley’s Doublemint, shot by Shoojit Sircar.
The leading Indian filmmaker offered Banita the starring role in his forthcoming film October, alongside established co-star Varun Dhawan. The film is described as a “beautiful journey of love, life and relationships”.
She said: “The industry over there is absolutely huge. This kind of film is actually something I believe could be a very international film. There is no singing or dancing and it is the kind of movie I grew up watching.
“I still cannot believe how manic all this has been, especially for my first film.”
While she says she is looking forward to pursuing more projects, Banita said that for now she has to hold her end of the bargain with her parents.
“The focus after all this is to make sure that I get my essays in and that I graduate,” she said. “There have been offers but they shield me from them so that I don’t get too stressed.”