You might have seen her in Kalaakandi or even Raman Raghav 2.0, but it’s Amazon Prime’s new original created by Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti that has put the spotlight on Sobhita Dhulipala. The Quint caught up with her as she spoke her about her breakthrough role with the series, navigating through Bollywood and how she fell in love with acting.
This widespread recognition is new for her, because her films prior to this were much smaller. “There are some people who now look at me and are like, “You’re the ‘Made In Heaven’ girl” from here and there which is new for me, because I have not had the kind of exposure that makes a regular person recognise me so it’s quite new. It feels weird. Not great, it’s just like "yeah what did I do?" you know?” she said.
Sobhita was crowned Miss India Earth in 2013, but soon realised that she was seeking something more satisfying. She said, “I was excited about it but I felt very disconnected. I felt like I was punching below my weight. I did a lot of auditions like for TVCs, for commercials. Mostly I was not fair enough, or I was not North Indian enough or I was not enthusiastic enough, like a mad jumping 16-year-old; that was the energy they wanted”.
“I did my first film audition and halfway through the audition I realised that man this is what I want to pursue, because in the film audition there is some narrative, some emotion to the scene. With ads, you feel like a sales person”.Sobhita Dhulipala, Actor
Sobhita hopes that the recognition that has come with Made In Heaven translates into better work and more opportunities. She says, “I’m very fortunate to be working with Amazon Prime on such a big project. And I got it purely out of an audition, I had no connections or anything so there’s a part of me that is like it is hard until it isn’t. So it felt fairly democratic. I felt it, I think it is, but I don’t know how it is going to evolve further.”
Made In Heaven stars Arjun Mathur, Sobhita Dhulipala, Kalki Koechlin and Jim Sarah is now streaming on Amazon Prime.
Camera: Sanjoy Deb
Assistant Cameraperson: Gautam Sharma
Editor: Veeru Krishan Mohan
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)