Film Industry: Pallavi Sharda, 25, is an Australia-born Indian, who harboured the dream of being in Bollywood right from her childhood

MONEY IS ALMOST A NEGATIVE VALUE IN OUR FAMILY

Pallavi Sharda, 25, is an Australia-born Indian, who harboured the dream of being in Bollywood right from her childhood. She is emotional and reacts quickly, though she tries to maintain a straight face, being trained as a lawyer. She is extremely close to her academic and independent family, but considers her brother her soulmate without whom she would often feel morose even as a kid. She just wants to make her parents proud and be able to hold her head high and is extremely proud that she bagged her role in the upcoming film Besharam purely on merit. She is naturally happy but has a tendency to get into contemplative phases, where she will stare into space all by herself. Her parents always gave her a lot of space and respect and allowed her to take her decisions by herself. She loves baking for people and is known as the Bandra chaiwalli. She talks to Bombay Times about her Indian-Australian upbringing, her observation on her co-star Ranbir Kapoor and how the Indian-Australian issues were sensationalised by the Indian media. Excerpts:
Tell us about your background? We are Saraswat Brahmins. My father is originally from Punjab and my mother from UP, but they both grew up in Delhi. They are both engineers from IIT and are now professors in Australia. Their romance was like 3 Idiots as my nanaji was a professor at IIT and my father was his junior, who fell in love with his daughter on the campus and married her. My mother’s family had migrated to the US and my father loved adventure and travel and moved to Australia, just after my brother was born. Even though my father was really sought after, he was always an academic soul. Money is almost a negative value in our family. Three years later I was born in Perth and grew up in Melbourne. My brother and I were also academically inclined and I finished school at 16, as I skipped a year due to a double promotion. I finished my double degree in Law and BA within four-and-a-half years instead of six, as I wanted to just come to India to be a part of Bollywood. From the time I could enunciate that word from my childhood, I had only dreamt of being a Bollywood actress.
Tell us about your life as an Australian Indian? I learnt Bharatnatyam since the age of three. Most parents would drag their kids to class. In my case, I would be dragging them to take me to class. I am a dancer before I am anything else. I grew up on Madhuri and Sridevi. After Lamhe, I was always known as Pallu the dancer. I later started teaching dance while studying. We learnt Hindi watching films. When you live abroad, you are more in touch with your roots. The Indian community is close-knit, your functions revolve around the same set of people and you have exposure to different Indian cultures. In Australia, I was the heralding Indian woman carrying my Indian culture everywhere. On my casual clothes day, I would wear a lehenga choli to school and would often wear a bindi to McDonalds.
How did you bag a role with a big star like Ranbir Kapoor? I have always been extremely independent. I travelled to Chennai alone at the age of 10 to learn dance at Kalakshetra. I went to school in Chennai for six months as that was my dad’s condition for allowing me to go to Chennai. I was this absurd child who regretted not being born in India and the Bollywood fantasy was too much inside me. Now I think it’s got balanced out as I live here. My mom, unlike other NRIs, would come to India three times a year being the head of South Asia relationship for her university and I would come with her. I travelled every nook and corner of the country. But the Bollywood dream never left me. I would watch films and come home and feel morose as I wanted to be a part of them. I had told everyone and, when I finally came, no one was surprised as it was inevitable. During my law internship, I only remember emailing production houses in India during my lunch hour. I was crazy and knew I had to do it, as I would otherwise regret it for the rest of my life. I just wanted to dance in films. I was 21 when I first came here. I did a bit of theatre and was a lead actress in Vaibhavi Merchant’s musical Taj Express due to my dance. I did a small film called Dus Tola with Manoj Bajpayee. I did not want to become a famous actress, I just wanted to work. I also did a small role in Love Breakups Zindagi and an Australian film. I always knew that I am hardworking, passionate and knew dance, but did not know how to navigate my life in Bollywood. Abhinav Kashyap met me at a screening and two months later I got a call to audition for Besharam. He told me, ‘It’s a fair game. You audition. If you are good, we take it forward.’ It’s rare to be made to feel that way and I respect him because of the way he believes in merit. After several rounds of audition, I was selected.
How was the experience of working with Ranbir? I was so ecstatic on my way back after being selected in a Ranbir film that I put on blasting music in my car. I had never dreamt of walking a red carpet. My dream had only been to be in a khet dancing, wearing a salwar kameez with a hero singing to me. Ranbir is very supportive and a fabulous actor. He was really focused on the set and just remained in his character. I would observe him on what he would do between shots. For instance, there is a scene where there is tension between our characters and he had to be a bit awkward and fidgety. Between shots, he kept playing with a piece of paper to remain fidgety.
Is Melbourne back to being safe for Indian tourists and students? I remember when I came to Mumbai, I said, ‘Namaste aunty’ and they made me feel I had said something so tacky. I was considered backward and I called my mom to say, ‘You made me a villager.’ But I still do that, as it reminds me of my roots and makes me feel nostalgic about the way I grew up. In Melbourne, I could be so Indian and Australian at the same time and have no qualms about my heritage. What was carried in Indian media was sensational. My mother would hold a Diwali dinner for all the Indian students in our house and would provide pastoral care to them as they were immigrants. So when I heard about this disharmony, where I had grown up in so much harmony and been given the freedom to live as an Indian-Australian, it bothered me and I went back to see if it was true. If you have a sudden jump in the number of immigrants in any society, there are issues, but those are only teething problems. It is peaceful today. Melbourne is a multicultural place. I was the ambassador for Australia last year, as the High Commission felt I stood for Indian culture, having been a young leader in many walks of life and a role model to Indians in Australia through my dance. I am known within the Indian community there. I went home this time in May and the reaction of the Indian public was so overwhelming. I cried meeting all my uncles and aunties. I knew that it was the dandiya nights and the chana jor garam nights they had organised that had made me realise how much I loved Indian dance and music. And that is probably how I have been able to play the role of Tara in Besharam, who is a very Indian girl who never left India.