INSIDE THE MIND OF sobhita dhulipala

Over a video chat, Cosmo Editor, Nandini Bhalla, interviews actor Sobhita Dhulipala about what she’s been up to in quarantine, why she loves spending time alone (“it’s like meditation!”), sibling rivalry, and how she created the iconic #WFH cover for Cosmo India—which broke the Internet, BTW—without a make-up artist, art director, or stylist in sight.

- Nandini Bhalla

Nandini Bhalla: What have you been up to, during the lockdown?

Sobhita Dhulipala: “So, I must confess that I have not worked out since 2015 and this is not something I am proud of. I used to work out before I started working on my first film... But my director Anurag Kashyap told me, ‘Listen, for this film, I don’t think the character is supposed to be super-fit. You need to look like someone would in real life. Do not look so toned.’ That made sense to me...so I stopped. And then I took up another film, where I felt my character should have a ‘real body’, so I gained seven-eight kilos. It was something I felt was needed for the role. I became incredibly passionate about looking like the characters I was playing, and I gained or lost weight accordingly.

In the process, I became so stubborn about enacting the character properly that I ignored fitness. I think I attached it too much to vanity. But now I have realised that it does not have to be like that. So I finally started working out at home this year, and then this lockdown began. Now, I work out for an hour in the morning— yoga and functional training, as soon as I wake up... Oh wait, I also just started—as of yesterday!—drinking something called bullet coffee, I don’t know if you know about it...”