BAZAAR Spotlight: Meet Anushka Sharma, The Bollywood Beauty

If you are not familiar with the stunning Anushka Sharma, you can click here to find out more about this Bollywood superstar. With over 22 million followers on Instagram alone, Anushka has catapulted herself into international stardom, despite never starring in any Hollywood or Western films. This 30-year-old actress has starred alongside Bollywood kings such as Shahrukh Khan, Aamir Khan and more. As her acting career flourishes, Anushka went on to pursue filmmaking, film-production and even created her own women's clothing line called 'Nush'.

Clearly, Anushka is a woman of many talents and great ambition. This year, Madame Tussauds celebrated Anushka by immortalizing her as a wax figure in her museum at Resorts World Sentosa. In fact, even her wax figure is special as it is the first ever interactive wax figure that debut in Madame Tussauds' museum. The superstar flew down for the unveiling and BAZAAR managed to catch up with her after the big reveal.

Read on to see what she has to say about fashion, the Bollywood film industry and more.

How does it feel to have yourself immortalized as a Madame Tussauds statue and an interactive one at that?

You grow up looking at these statues thinking how incredible it is that people can love and respect someone so much, be so popular that they would be immortalized in this manner. For this to happen to myself is something that I didn't see coming. It feels very surreal and also a little freaky. It's one thing to see it in pictures but to see it in real life is totally different. It's a little creepy because it looks so real.

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What is Bollywood today and how has it changed since you started your career?

It's an industry that's constantly evolving, as it should be. Ultimately, films represent society. And I think that as society progresses, you see that being reflected in the movies as well. People have a certain idea of how the Hindi film industry is, and it's usually just associated with song and dance but I think that's not the case anymore. It has evolved a lot.

Of course we still have our songs and dances but that's because it is intrinsic and true to us. We're very proud of it. But we also have films that are making a very strong point. There are different voices and it's amazing to see people of all the different parts of the India, making cinema, having a creative language. That's something I'm happy to be a part of because I got to see that shift. As a producer, I feel like there are so many more opportunities for me to tell a story because of the times that we're living in. The world is becoming a smaller place and our films are reaching a global audience, which is amazing.

You've worn so many incredible costumes in your films. Which one was the most memorable for you and why?

Even though the film didn't do as well as I had hoped, it has to be Bombay Velvet. There was so much attention to detail when it came to creating those costumes. Even the hair and makeup was so well-researched. Just that alone, I would have to say Bombay Velvet.

It was a painstaking to process to sit through 3 hours of makeup and hair and then staying in those heavy outfits the whole day, but it was so well-done that I felt like a real movie star on that set.

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Who is your favourite Indian designer that you think everyone should know about and why?

It'll have to be Lovebirds and Chola. I think these two designers are incredible and I wear a lot of their clothes.

What's next for Anushka Sharma?

I have a film that will be released end of December. So that will keep me very busy, with promoting the movie and whatnot. We have a huge audience in Singapore so I'm happy that it will be released here too.

What is one thing you wish will never change and one thing that you think should change about the current Bollywood landscape?

One thing that shouldn't change is having different voices in cinema. There's greater diversity in the kinds of movies that we do and it resonates with our audience. One thing that should change however, is better female character representation in our films. I think that's currently in motion right now. It's happening all over the world, not just the Bollywood industry.

We're making those steps and creating characters for women which represent the women of today. Women with opinions and careers, who are making their presence known in society. It's something that I strive towards as a producer and even as an actor, in the roles that I choose to do. So I think change is happening and it's a welcome change.

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