No Time To Know

Celebrating her biggest year yet, Kiara Advani is on her way to the top.

- Akanksha Kamath

Kiara Advani and I are playing tag. I meet her briefly between shots on the sets of her first ever Vogue India cover shoot. It’s a quick hello as she takes a breather, only to dart to the loo. “Oh god, what a way to meet,” she says, a bit embarrassed. But really, I’m the voyeur here, watching and gauging her every move as Bolly wood’s fresh face on the rise.

There are a few things I gather observing the 27-year-old. She brings a certain energy to the set. It’s not heavy with airs, nor with demands of leafy salads with a side of green juice (just ghar ka khaana that accompanies her to her next engagement for the evening). When the strobe lights come on, all she needs is a song to slip into character. The sensual beats of ‘Señorita’ by Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello help her into the skin of the protagonist she’s playing today, a flamenco dancer in a sinister lace dress from Dolce & Gabbana.

It’s when we finally sit in her hotel room that she asks everyone to leave us (managers and PR agents included), tucks into her dinner, and dives into the story of the day she asked for all the things she now has.

A HOMECOMING

2019 has been Advani’s biggest year yet: Lust Stories, the 2018 small screen (but big drama) offering from Netflix, bagged a nomination at the International Emmy Awards, while Kabir Singh (2019), where she played Shahid Kapoor’s love interest, entered the `200 crore club. Her latest outing, Dharma Productions’s Good Newwz, the Kareena Kapoor Khan- and Akshay Kumar-starrer, comes out later this month.