MITHILA PALKAR: ‘THE INTERNET MADE ME WHO I AM'

India’s digital revolution birthed the actor-performer. Here’s how she became and remains the country’s most relatable new-age superstar.

- JESSICA XALXO

A pink plastic cup is upended on a Jacobeanstained petite wooden table. A woman seizes the unassuming instrument and drums up a grin ablaze with a creative innocence. Aamchi (our) Mithila is your girl next door; she’s a face on the precipice of ubiquity. As she launches into an intricately choreographed sequence of hand gestures and sing-song, humming Jaywant Kulkarni’s Noughties Marathi hit “Hi Chaal Turu Turu,” she becomes what people around the globe invariably tune into – the news.

“Arey, ti doordarshanvar aahe? (She’s on television?)”, a man mumbles in disbelief as he receives a call that tells him his granddaughter is on the ABP channel. Up until that moment in March 2o16, Palkar’s ajoba (grandfather) had been apprehensive of her leaving the house

– if she was actively auditioning for roles, why couldn’t he see her work on the film or television screen? It was at this juncture that the beloved ajoba remembered what he said to his granddaughter when she mustered up the courage to tell him that she wanted to be an actor. (She had checked all of his boxes by then – 1) Graduate 2) Get a job 3) Gross a monthly paycheck.) “Tula acting karayche aahe? Baghu ya (You want to act now? We’ll see.)” And the world did.

As Mithila Palkar’s Marathi cover of the Cup Song went viral on YouTube, her sounding board, her grandparents, came around to view her as a performer, but most distinguishedly as a star on the Internet. What they didn’t realize was that the Cup Song wasn’t Palkar’s first act on the web.