ADITI RAO HYDARI GIRL ON THE MOVE

FREE-SPIRITED AND WITH A TIMELESS CHARM, ADITI IS AN ENGAGING BLEND OF STRENGTH AND ELEGANCE

- Rukma Saluja

THERE'S a cluster of crew and managers huddled around a laptop when I enter the suite at The Park Mumbai in Juhu for this month's cover shoot. The look, the light, the angle, the expression....it's all under the scanner and after the intense brainstorming she goes back to facing the camera. Dressed regally in shimmering rust, she looks ethereal as if a puffof wind could blow her away. But that's the impression. “I inherited my genes and the entire team involved with a film presents me in a certain way. It's what is on the inside that matters,” says Aditi Rao Hydari who has taken time out from the film schedule of Ribhu Dasgupta's The Girl on the Train, an adaptation of British author Paula Hawkins' book of the same name, for this photo shoot for THE MAN.

She could be right, but perhaps she was groomed to take centre stage from the beginning. She stepped into the glitzy world of Indian cinema from a world where she'd been exposed to culture through her growing years. Music, theatre and the arts were a part of her life from the time she was born. Films weren't. That she's made a mark for herself in the film industry, points to her grit and determination to stay the course in an alien world.

Aditi juggles her calendar between Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi films and flits from one to another fitting seamlessly into the different working styles of each of these film industries. Once the camera rolls, it's just her and the character she's playing, it doesn't matter where the set is. “It's all about stories, and stories must have feelings,” she says. “They must evoke a reaction in you, you must take home an emotion. Feelings are universal, they don't have a language. Every director wants an actor to bring realism to a character, they all want 'raw emotions'. I learned how to do that from Mani (Ratnam) sir.” The Tamil film (Kaatru