Deepali Singh (DNA; May 31, 2019)

When we call up Sobhita Dhulipala to wish her a happy birthday, the actress tells us she is in her hometown Vishakhapatnam today with her family. The 26-year-old doesn’t have any grand plans of celebrating her birthday and in fact, doesn’t get what the fuss is all about. “Birthdays have always been like regular days. I’m just happy that I’m getting to spend time with my family, especially with my mother whom I’m very close to. I might cook some Andhra dishes for her today,” she tells us with a smile.

Pursuit of happiness
The Made In Heaven actress sounds philosophical as she admits to being in a much calmer space today. “Earlier, I was much more focussed on making things happen. This year, I got to travel to new places and picked up new genres of books to read. So, that has been a good experience,” she says. Far from an overnight sensation — her initial movies such as Raman Raghav 2.0 (2016), Chef (2017) and Kaalakaandi (2018) were not exactly money-spinners — the former beauty queen made people sit up and take notice of her with last year’s superhit Telugu film Goodachari and the web series Made In Heaven this year.

“Having seen success now, it’s given me the clarity that both highs and lows feel normal to me,” she adds. She sounds too sorted to be true, we tell her and she laughs. “To some extent, yes. I’m not always clear-headed about what I want, but my mind is constantly seeking places where I can grow and learn. That pursuit is non-stop,” she states.

The road ahead
On the professional front, she has a couple of projects that she is on the verge of signing but doesn’t want to jinx them by revealing too much. She will be seen in The Body with Emraan Hashmi and also, the web series The Bard Of Blood. And is she in the second season of Sacred Games, as some websites are claiming? “No, that’s not true at all,” she says. “I was approached for a role in the first season of the show, but I was shooting for Made In Heaven then, and couldn’t accommodate both. That’s all there is to it,” she clarifies. Such rumours amuse her no end. “I have read similar things about me being in the Hindi remake of Kanchana (Laxmmi Bomb) and Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior. Most of these projects sound so exciting. I would love to do them, but I’m not!” she laughs.