31 Things You Didn't Know About Bollywood Superstar, Anushka Sharma
Recently, Sharma inked a deal with Netflix to produce original movies. As a rising force in Hollywood, here're some things we didn’t know about her
By Harper’s Bazaar Singapore Team - published
While Priyanka Chopra may be one of Bollywood’s biggest names to make a historic crossover to Hollywood in recent history, there is another star who also had a similar career trajectory minus the engagement to a Jonas brother. With 20 million Instagram followers and 19 movies under her belt, this bonafide global superstar is no other than Anushka Sharma.
Recently, Sharma inked a deal with Netflix to produce original movies. As a rising force in Hollywood, here are the 31 facts that we didn’t know about her.
Both of them were in Dil Dhadkne Do, a dramedy about a dysfunctional family who go on vacation to celebrate a wedding anniversary.
She originally wanted to become a journalist prior to becoming a model and actress.
Her father, Ajay Kumar Sharma, is an army colonel and her mother, Ashima, is a homemaker.
Although she was born in Uttar Pradesh, Sharma grew up in Bangalore. Then, she moved to Mumbai in 2007 to pursue a modeling career.
“I take pride in saying that I am an army officer's daughter even more than being an actor,” says Sharma to Times of India.
He was a former under-19 cricket player before he served in the navy. Now, he is a co-founder of Clean Slate Films, a production company he founded with Anushka.
The notoriously press-shy actress once jumped over a railing to avoid the paparazzi.
She was shortlisted to star in Spielberg’s movie about Kashmir, which previously featured Bradley Cooper, Denzel Washington and Richard Gere in the project. However, the movie has never been in production.
While Sharma was being interviewed, a journalist’s phone accidentally rang. So, Sharma answered it. The phone call was from the journalist’s mum.
In 2014, Sharma tweeted to ban horse-drawn carriages in Mumbai. A year later, she spoke up against Yulin, a festival in China where dogs are slaughtered for consumption. On her birthday in May 2018, she pledged to build a home for stranded animals.
In 2015, she was previously named as PETA’s Hottest Vegetarian Celebrity.
Sharma’s clothing line, Nush, is named after herself. The line carries cruelty-free casual staples of graphic tees, loose dresses and printed slacks.
“I'm not very social by nature; I don't have the time to. I'd rather use that time to relax and prepare for my work. I can't have futile conversations. After I come back from a party, I feel drained emotionally and intellectually that I actually have to do something to feel better so I watch TV or read something. At parties, the music is so loud. You can't really have conversations with people” she said to India.com.
Sharma plays a scientist with cerebral palsy. Since her character was supposed to be a surprise for her fans, Sharma’s co-star Shah Rukh Khan had to keep her under wraps while she exited her trailer.
Like Hollywood, Bollywood often casts the same co-stars in multiple projects. Shah Rukh Khan and Anushka Sharma starred in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and again in Zero.
The award was for her role in Jab Tak Hai Jaan in 2010. Her first nomination as Best Actress from the Filmfare Awards was for her debut role in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi in 2007.
Rodricks was the man who convinced Sharma to model after he spotted her at a denim shop in Bangalore.
She admitted it in an interview for Cosmopolitan India. "Oh my god, I'm SO terrified of them!" says Sharma.
Her dream dinner guests are Ryan Gosling, Jennifer Lawrence, Natalie Portman, Benazir Bhutto and Roger Federer.
In the comedy, Kareena Kapoor portrays Pia, a doctor who falls in love with an eccentric engineering student.
The role went to Deepika Padukone.
Sharma was tapped to appear on a campaign for Fujifilm’s Instax Square. For Polaroid, she did a commercial for the brand’s eyewear campaign.
“I don’t think I was a good model. I think I was born to emote and act. I would walk down the ramp and smile and they used to say, ‘give us a blank look.’ It was really difficult, not to smile,” she said to Times of India.
Among all the box office hits she made, the only film that flopped was Bombay Velvet in 2015. In an interview, Sharma says, “I have never faced… a flop. My films have done average well or they have done really well. It has never been like what happened with Bombay Velvet. And it’s really painful. I was feeling like some death has happened in the family.”
Sharma thanked her 20 million followers on Instagram for their support.
Thanks to a decade-long illustrious career, Sharma’s impact on the fashion and acting worlds got her to where she is today.