Summer of Sobhita

From Vizag to LA, Sobhita Dhulipala is having a golden run.

- ANKUR PATHAK

While Sobhita Dhulipala sprung up on the Hindi film scene with Anurag Kashyap's Mumbai noir Raman Raghav 2.0 (2016) and followed that up in successive years with roles in Chef, Kaalakaandi, and the Shah Rukh Khan - produced Netflix series, Bard of Blood, it wasn't until Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti's Made in Heaven (2019) that both people and the industry sat up and took notice.

 

Tara Khanna in Made in Heaven was a deliciously complicated part. Without imposing a judgemental gaze, the Akhtar-Kagti duo was able to tell the story of a woman who weaponizes her sexuality and climbs the metaphorical ladder in Delhi’s high society. While Tara is able to find a place among the upper echelons of the capital’s insufferable elite, she has the bitter realization that fitting in is one thing, belonging quite another. That wardrobe can be acquired, but class is much more elusive.

In Tara, Sobhita brought in such a great mix of unapologetic fierceness and haunting vulnerability, that it was hard not to root for her, despite knowing what we knew.

As a girl who was deemed “timid” by her school teachers in the small city of Vizag, Sobhita perhaps knew a thing or two about breaking into a world far removed from her own. Having no context of the film industry helped in managing expectations.