There's something about Sobhita

She may be a newbie when it comes to facing the camera, but offit, Sobhita Dhulipala is clearly an old soul. Despite having one of the most successful OTT debuts in recent years, the star hasn’t let the fame go to her head, relying on her strong roots and authentic personality to anchor her, finds Sadaf Shaikh

- Sadaf Shaikh

“I am starting this interview by admitting that I’m single and it’s not by choice,” Sobhita Dhulipala, breakout OTT star and former beauty pageant title holder, announces to the mostly empty teahouse we’re seated in, as she diligently samples the scannable food menu on her mobile device. She makes that bold declaration rather distractedly—all her attention is centred on her impending meal, and it’s only when she has ordered three large plates of mains that I hear her phone chime with the lock tone and she looks up at me, satisfied. Her legs are draped over each other in a languid, crosslegged position, her kohl-rimmed eyes boring into mine, a lazy smile spreading across her face. I’m momentarily transfixed by her effortless poise. If she’s single, I observe out loud, it’s only because of this debilitating effect she has on those around her.

Dhulipala modestly brushes away this impassioned conclusion, but I assure her they aren’t the platitudes of a star-struck writer. I’d harboured similar sentiments almost a decade ago, when the 29-year-old and I were batchmates in senior college. I’d see her lounging on the canteen stairs with a cacophonous group of friends, listening earnestly—her dark eyes always intent—but never really participating in the conversation. What I mistook for deliberate insouciance, the actor reveals, was a painful sense of introversion. Born in Tenali, Andhra Pradesh, to a teacher and a marine engineer, Dhulipala grew up deeply embedded in academics, finding comfort in dusty bookshelves as opposed to the dazzling lure of television. In fact, she was well into her teens when she watched her first-ever set of movies, the