Anushka Sharma grimaces as she sits down for the interview. A problem with her back, she murmurs as she settles back on the sofa, but she clearly wants to ignore the pain. Her day has only just begun at Andheri’s YRF office, promoting her upcoming film Sui Dhaaga , and she prides herself in being the consummate professional. Our chat soon glides seamlessly, from her presence on social media to how she deals with anxiety.
One would not easily associate this warm, measured Sharma with the ‘Angry Young Woman’ image she has created for herself on the big screen: from the raw performance in Navdeep Singh’s NH10 (2015) to a simmering presence in Prosit Roy’s Pari (2018). Which is why she says, she initially declined the offer to star opposite Varun Dhawan in Sui Dhaaga — to play a soft-spoken woman from Chanderi who helps her husband build his garment business.
“I had reservations because she is very different from who I am, and how I’m perceived,” says the 30-year-old, about her character Mamta. “Quieter, seemingly submissive; I didn’t know if people would find that believable.” What changed her mind? “I realised I was not reading her very deeply. I was seeing her on a surface level. Everyone else in the film is very verbose. She is not like that, but she [expresses herself] in a very different way, which was very interesting.”
The director, however, always knew she could pull off a reticent character. Her debut performance in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (2008) has stayed with him. “She was really quiet and unhappy, but had to carry on with her life,” he says about her character Taani, adding that this made his sure she could don Mamta’s character, too.
The ‘social’ reality
The film, apart from portraying the two stars in very different avatars, has adopted an interesting promotional strategy — one that marries social media with its theme of Indian handicrafts. Artisans from across the country used over 15 needlework styles to design the Sui Dhaaga logo, which Dhawan and Sharma then shared on their Twitter and Instagram accounts. #HeroesMadeInIndia accompanied videos on entrepreneurial women from the heartland, and Insta stories tracked Sharma practising embroidery. Talking about the industry’s increasing need to engage with audiences online, she says, “People are logged on [social media] most of the time, possibly even more than television. And because there is so much information on it, it has to be clutter-breaking.”
Globally, there is increasing pressure on celebrities to remain constantly visible. In fact, according to a New York Post article, casting agents in Hollywood now track how many followers a star has, as it brings built-in viewership. India has not jumped on that bandwagon yet, which is good news for Sharma because her accounts suggest she is rather private. Her pages nearly mirror each other — flooded with promotional images for films, and only occasionally punctuated by pictures with friends and family. “I keep it real. I’m very private in my life and even on social media,” she shrugs, sharing that she enjoys the complete ownership she has over her online persona. “It’s a space that you can control, and I think that’s the beauty of it,” she says.
So it is surprising that a recent survey named her the most influential star on social media in India — especially since she is outranked in followers by others, including Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra. Would the results have anything to do with her high-profile wedding to cricketer Virat Kohli last year, and the attention she attracts online?
Meme queen
At the moment, the actor is going viral on the internet. While she has laughed off the recent Sui Dhaaga memes (using a screen grab of her weeping face from the film’s trailer) — she even said she takes it as a “huge compliment” — the actor has faced backlash from trolls. Especially for a video posted on Twitter by Kohli that showed her condemning a man for littering on the road. She is also regularly blamed online for his poor performances on the cricket field. One wonders how she tackles this persistent derision and resulting anxiety.
“In the beginning of my career, I dealt with anxiety very differently. Nobody noticed it, I didn’t want people to notice it, or, quite honestly, maybe I didn’t understand it myself,” she explains. “I would overcompensate by being excited and bubbly. But I’m not so turnt up all the time.” She is not as worried about how people perceive her. As for trolling, she takes it as a challenge. “If I get trolled, [I ask] how much am I letting it get to me? Others have their own journey, but that’s not my problem. Not my circus, not my monkey,” she shrugs with a smile.
Female narrative
On the flip side, does she feel that this sense of authorship on social media has affected the perception of women in the industry? She believes so. “What it’s showing producers is that females have their own fan following, and sometimes even more than some of their male counterparts. It’s showing the reach female celebrities also have,” says Sharma, who has been nominated for the Smita Patil Memorial Award.
Film critic Anupama Chopra also believes the interest in the actor stems from her personal and professional choices. “She stands for the contemporary actor who is not willing to abide by the archaic rules that exist, or used to exist, in Bollywood,” she says. Recalling her 2015 interview with Sharma, where the star discussed the differential treatment meted out to male and female actors, Chopra adds, “What she said about women and pay disparity was a real tipping point. I hadn’t heard any actress talk like that before that.” The video has crossed three lakh views the last we checked.
- A show called Feud, which showed the rivalry between two actresses, but that was created by the studios and the media to benefit them. That is exactly what happens. I guess it struck a chord with me.
- This is Us shows an emotional and beautiful journey of a family — just flawed human beings who are trying to work together because of the love they share for each other. That’s what families are like.
Web alert
In her career spanning 10 years, Sharma has always been enterprising, branching out into film production in 2014 with Clean Slate Films — a company she co-founded with her brother Karnesh. There are reports of the two venturing into television commercials now. The actor-entrepreneur, however, will have to up her digital game soon, especially since she is producing a web-series. “I think there’s a lot more freedom to express yourself creatively now. The engagement is a lot more, and over a longer period of time,” she says. Words to live by, surely? While she admits she cannot disclose any details about the series at the moment, she signs off with a cheerful, “You’ll hear about it soon.”
Sui Dhaaga will release on September 28.
