WILD CARD

What makes a tech graduate from Delhi jump into the mighty jungle of Indian cinema? Vogue goes on safari with Kriti Sanon and finds that the young star has marked her territory and is here to stay

Published in Vogue India (print issue), April 2017

Image: Vogue India April 2017 cover story

I’m watching the video of the ‘90s earworm ‘Ankhiyan Milao’ starring Madhuri Dixit at the peak of her hair-flipping, gyrating, and pelvic-thrusting glory. The 26-year-old Kriti Sanon swears that her five-year-old self did the best impression of cinema’s favourite dancing queen—steps and expression in place. Sanon’s tryst with Bollywood started early; it’s no wonder she’s here now—it was meant to be.

 But other than the fact that she’s doggie mama to a Bichon named Disco, has Greece on her travel bucket list, and like us, loves Before Sunrise, the usually vociferous internet doesn’t throw up any juice on her. So I take it upon myself to uncover Sanon’s pretty millennial façade.

We meet at the Andheri home she shares with her sister, and Sanon is seated against a wall of family photographs in the living room. She seems sweet, smart and cool — dressed in jeans and a floral top, her fresh-faced appeal immediately elevating laid-back casuals into something charming. As she offers “tea, coffee…at least a cold drink,” she warns, “I take my time to open up. You’ll have to dig answers out of me.” She isn’t kidding—it takes me over two hours to get the actor to share how a little girl with stage fright and a knack for mimicking Madhuri Dixit’s dhak-dhaks went from an Electronics and Communication Major to acting in a Telegu film ( 1-Nenokkadine) and then sharing screen space with Shah Rukh Khan (Dilwale) within a year of her debut.

NO GIRL-NEXT-DOOR

 The Delhi girl moved to Mumbai in 2011 but still thinks of herself as an outsider. Her casual use of ‘Mumbai’ is telling—a word most Bombay-born-and-breds still stumble on. Today she has easer herself from academics to the glamorous life of an actor.

The only thing Sanon genuinely missed is the anonymity of her past, although only occasionally: “It’s hard sometimes, like when I can’t leave home to get paani puris.. or shop, like I used to,” she says. Her favourite star moment, too, comes from unlikely sources—far from the selfie-clicking tribe of fans. “Kids selling things at traffic signals came to my car and started singing songs from my films. It was the sweetest,” she adds.

SEMI-CHARMED LIFE

 At first glance, Sanon comes across as a methodical, almost pragmatic mind. It’s why the young star-struck kid was initially fixed on the idea of a very different career path: “While I loved dance and trained in kathak for five years, I picked up my degree by a process of elimination— I didn’t enjoy Arts or Commerce, so Science it was.” How did she end up on the big screen then? “In my second year of college I was visiting relatives in Mumbai and they suggested I get my portfolio shot. As I was tall, they thought I should give modelling a shot,” she says.

 Long story shot, Sanon sashayed from the runways onto TVCs and then to a propitious debut in the 2014 Telugu film 1-Nenokkadine. A few auditions later, she had signed her Bollywood debut, Heropanti. It’s difficult to believe that her life and career have panned out so unwittingly. But Sanon is a believer in fate. She’s also as spontaneous as she’s sensible. Given her fortuitous entry to the film industry, she’s sure struck the right balance.

Her Bollywood debut may have been celebrated in newsprint as co-star Tiger Shroff’s launch, but the then-newcomer Sanon didn’t feel sidelined. She admits those from film families tend to have better choices in films, though this hasn’t deterred her. “I’m super grateful for my first few films, but I was just finding my feet then. Now I’m craving meatier, more layered and more challenging roles.” And she might just have found it—for her upcoming films, Raabta and Bareilly Ki Barfi, out this year, the Filmare Best Debut awardee learnt horse riding and scuba diving and underwent weapons training. 

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST

She may be new to the limelight but Sanon already knows how to walk the personal and professional tightrope. There have been errant rumours about romancing a co-star, but she remains exasperatingly tight-lipped and caves in only to say that any relationship, platonic or not, is organic. “You can’t plan a relationship. You connect with people or you don’t. I’m single, honestly. But I’m okay dating someone from the industry—a boyfriend would have to understand my profession and it’s not an easy one to understand unless you’re a part of it,” she explains.

Voluble about her opinions and carving out her own path, she refused to take the ensemble film and small-part offers, until the perfect debut beckoned. No wonder her industry muse is world dominator Priyanka Chopra. “PC is fearless, secure in where she is and what she’s doing—and she’s always been like that. She’s never come across as fragile and is so inspiring.” 

Sanon may have imbibed PC’s fearlessness but she won’t mistake that for foolhardiness. She seems honest in her answers, but her responses are always measured and restrained. The reason we haven’t heard much about her is because she’s adept at keeping you at arm’s length while making you believe she’s sharing everything. She acknowledges it too: “It’s easy for an actor’s personal life to overshadows his/ her work and I hate that. So, it’s better to say things that won’t get you into trouble. You cannot be fake but there are questions I cannot truly answer—and often as I’m giving a diplomatic answer I’ll be thinking, ‘What the hell am I saying! It’s so cliched.”

 CALL OF THE WILD

 As the questions get personal, she takes longer to reply. “Thanks to acting, I’m constantly learning things about myself—I like to argue, and I question everything, even on set with my directors. It’s my nature to be logical.” It’s a trait that her academic upbringing has nurtured. “I can be annoyingly rigid with my opinions but I’m trying to be flexible,” she adds.

It’s easy to see that Sanon is still figuring herself out, analysing her in-flux nature and choices. She may have jumped into Bollywood but the person I’m taking to isn’t the naïve girl who began her modelling career on a lark. She’s more introspective, focused and less insecure than her years would suggest, as if she’s getting closer to self-actualisation. Sanon might have started out as an unassuming debutante in the film jungle but she’s here to quietly conquer this adopted kingdom.