Now, Sobhita Dhulipala has signed a three-film deal with Phantom films
Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; July 13, 2016)


Eight years ago, a tomboyish Sobhita Dhulipala, who was planning to backpack her way out of her hometown, Visakhapatnam, would have laughed off anyone suggesting that she'd join the movies. She did move to Mumbai at 19, but only to enrol at city college. And to validate herself as a 'cool chick' she auditioned for the Miss India beauty pageant. She bagged the title of Miss Earth India 2013 and three years later went on to make her Bollywood debut with Raman Raghav 2.0. Today, the small town girl is Anurag Kashyap's favourite leading lady and has a three-film deal with his home banner, Phantom Films, which has set tongues wagging.

The 24-year-old, whose idea of make-up was wearing lip balm, had walked into casting director Mukesh Chhabra's office to audition for her first role, doing an intimate scene with a complete stranger (Vicky Kaushal of Masaan fame) without knowing which film it was for.

She was never a movie buff and had watched no more than 20 films in the last two decades. After that first audition, she left for home. It was Ganesh Chaturthi and the roads were clogged with people. "It was invigorating!" she recalls, speaking to Mirror on a rainy afternoon. "Twenty minutes later, I got a call asking me to return to Mukesh's office. When I arrived, I found Anurag Kashyap sitting there. That was the first time I saw him."

The next two hours were memorable. Anurag took Vicky and Sobhita to the Phantom office where she also met Nawazuddin Siddiqui. By the end of the day, she had completed the look test, locked the dates and signed her first film. "That day with Anurag was surreal. I remember walking back home from Aram Nagar, crying. When Anurag said "action" on the first day of shoot, it was like homecoming," she reminisces.

Sobhita candidly admits that Phantom Films has been extremely bullish about her since the very beginning. "I am lucky to have found an artistic companion in Anurag, there is a sense of belonging," the fan girl exults, adding, "Yeh alag hi duniya hai, yaar. It's like finding a new universe, Aram Nagar zindabad!"

Point out that some industry insiders, critics and many of his die-hard fans have written off Anurag following back-to-back box-office duds, Bombay Velvet and Raman Raghav 2.0, and Sobhita argues that Anurag is the man who gave us Black Friday and Gangs of Wasseypur. "No one can run down his passion or talent. I trust him blindly, he is too passionate a man to ever be written off," she asserts.

Sobhita lives alone in Mumbai, often meeting her sister who lives in Pune or flying back to her parents in Vizag when she gets homesick. "But Anurag's been warm and welcoming and Phantom is family," she says, unfazed by any rumours that could be going around, now that she's a celebrity. "I don't take any of these link-up stories seriously. Hell, I don't even take myself seriously! I am like a little child lost in this big, bad, yet fascinating Bollywood mela, jo hona hoga, ho jayega," she signs off.