On December 12, 2008, the nation saw Anushka Sharma for the first time on the celluloid with Aditya Chopra's third directorial, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. She played the role of a spunky and feisty Punjabi girl, Taani, whose world comes crashing as her fiancée passes away and so does her father. But before taking his last breath, he marries her off to Surinder Sahni, his former student.
Sahni, madly in love with his wife and hell-bent on making her fall in love with him, undergoes a major change in his personality to woo the lady he has sworn to live and die with. Sharma opted for a rather tricky and immensely questionable role for her debut and displayed a knack for confidence and charm right with her debut. A star was discovered.
Today, as the actress completes 11 years in the industry, she's a massive star, a successful producer, a celebrity wife, and a sport who has inculcated the art of self-deprecation. She has all the things one needs to be a star and a survivor in Bollywood. We shall elaborate:
1. The Bold Choices
Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi may have led to the nation discovering a star, it was Band Baaja Baaraat and the films after that made her a star. Despite the sameness in the characters she was offered in the initial days of her career, Sharma infused them with enigma and energy.
And the brave choices continued after the success of this Maneesh Sharma directorial. Opting for roles that transcended the banalities of box-office collections and weekend numbers, she dove straight into the world of Vishal Bhardwaj and Anurag Kashyap with their ambitious and oddball pieces of work- Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola and Bombay Velvet. Both her characters were poles apart in the way they were crafted and performed.
And despite the failure of the two films, Sharma established her prowess and made it clear she has the audacity to attempt what seems experimental for the skewed mindsets of the trade.
Last year, she starred in a film called Sui Dhaaga - Made In India, a simple story set in the small town of Chanderi, a film about hope and aspirations. Sharma's was a character she never explored before. It was a role that had to connect with the common man, it was a preparation that had to go beyond removing pancake and wearing traditional attires. It was something that had to come from within. And collaborating fantastically with Varun Dhawan, she showed there's hardly any role she cannot pull off.
We continue to wait for what she does next as an actor!
2. The Brave Producer
Anushka Sharma became one of the first actors from her contemporaries to turn producer. And right from her first film, which she also acted in, she showed she's a woman defined by fearlessness. NH10 was a dark, edgy, gory piece of work that allowed the actress to take centre-stage and do everything that Hindi film heroes have been known for. She fought, she bled, and she overpowered the villains. She showed whatever a man could do, a woman could pull off with as ease and heroism.
Unlike most of the other filmmakers who believe in cashing-in the glory of their previous success or attempting the same genre of masala potboilers, Sharma made a sweet love story titled Phillauri. It was a love story of a woman who's separated from her beloved and becomes a ghost after committing suicide. The finale of the film may have received mixed reactions, but there lay the film's biggest strength and the most endearing quality.
One of my personal favourite films of 2018 was the psychological thriller, Pari. Maybe it was marketed incorrectly. It was promoted as a horror film and the promos gave an indication to the same, but it was much more than thrills and chills, it was an unheard narrative about a mysterious woman. Sharma poured all her heart to create a role that nobody in her contemporaries attempted.
More than creating horror out of physical transformation and prosthetic, she allowed hooking the audience with her psyche and emotional turmoil. And by the time the film ended, she still remained a mystery.
3. The Sport
The advent of social media has allowed everyone to have an opinion and be judgemental about everything under the sun. And Sharma has also faced a lot of it on social media. This has been happening for half-a-decade now, but she has always taken it by her stride and on her chin. The Sui Dhaaga memes took the Internet by a storm, but the actress laughed with them, going on to share some of her favourites on her social media accounts. She has always been a sport, even when she has been criticised for Virat Kohli's dismal performance.
We don't have too many names in the industry who can tackle so many opinions with a smile. And this is what makes the actress stand out. And the completion of 11 years in the industry is just the beginning. Here's to more searing performances and scintillating film choices, and all with that contagious smile!
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