After being accused of plumping her lips, anorexising her body, and losing India her cricket matches, all in 2014, Anushka Sharma seems to have risen, taller than her 5'9" this year. She's starred in and produced NH10, been the jazz-singer-informer-lover in Bombay Velvet, and the working-girl-cruise-line-dancer in Dil Dhadakne Do. The films have made her the actor with the biggest grossers of the year. Plus, a lot of the success of the 2014 PK spilled into this year. So you'd think she'd want to sit back and relax. She doesn't. She's at the cover shoot venue on time, still jet-lagged after her flight back from Vienna, where she has been shooting for Karan Johar's Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. Though the shoot is slightly delayed, she doesn't exude star vibes, sitting patiently in the vanity van, reading a book. I wait for her, reading my own, and eventually get to watch her rock vintage florals.
Obviously, Sharma isn't letting success get the better of her. "What is important is that I am being able to produce a film, talk to studios, and work with them," she says, her silver Oxfords planted firmly on the ground, never crossing her legs or folding her arms in a defensive move, the androgynous style that's taken her to the top of so many best-dressed lists, coming through. "I'm extremely spiritual," she says, but it's clear that it's not about a life of meditation. "Mentally, if you can be the same in happy and uncomfortable situations, don't lose your temper or patience, that is the bigger meditation. It's not something you do for an hour; it's a part of everything you do." She's able to tackle things better, be calmer, more in the moment, and, with the result, happier.
Which is why she says she doesn't take comments on social media personally any more. After India's loss to Australia in the World Cup semi-finals earlier this year, she became an easy target, flooded with hate tweets that blamed her for boyfriend Virat Kohli's poor performance. Of course it affected her, but she realised very soon that it had more to do with a misplaced sense of anger that people felt. And she's definitely used all those ill comments as stepping stones to the top.
Anushka talks of her relationship with Kohli as being in a happy space, giving her a sense of stability, and in a sense, completeness. But she's glad to have got into it at a time when she herself was "grown up," settled into a life in the limelight, the career path she'd chosen. She's obviously not been in a rush to get to the top, having done just 11 films in eight years. Insecurities persist, though. "We all have them," she says honestly. "What you do with them is important. Do you become angry and bitter, or do you think about how you can better yourself."
So, armed with all this wisdom, is she ready for some time-off, now that the first big schedule of Ae Dil Hai Mushkil is done, a lot of it shot across Vienna, London, and Paris? Starring Ranbir Kapoor and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan as his wife, the film is a bittersweet love story of relationships and heartbreak. "I have too much energy and passion in me right now to be able to relax. I feel calm only when I'm working, otherwise I'm edgy." So she's looking at more scripts for production, because a holiday seems like a luxury. In fact, a holiday is what she actually likes splurging on. "I've met a lot of people who buy the latest bag. I'm not that person; I can't be that person." Instead, she'll check into a resort, go to the spa, get a massage, read a book, sleep a lot. "Luxury is not having a schedule, not needing to use the alarm."
Will she head out and party then? Shop perhaps? Neither. She shops high street (AllSaints, Religion, Rag & Bone), and doesn't much care for It bags, shoes, or jackets ("I wear stuff from four years ago.") She doesn't party, and leads a "sattvik life". Well, she did turn vegetarian last year, and while she initially missed mussels at St Ives in Cornwall, England, she doesn't any more. In fact, she finds it has made her calmer, this new lifestyle driving her decisions.
And the way she dresses mirrors this new person she has become: Self-assured, clear-headed. "Style is an extension of your personality. That's why I like to keep it simple, clean, not exaggerated. I wear clothes that look nice on me, not just because it's the thing of the moment," she says. She does have an indulgence, though: Perfume. Since she's very sensitive to smell, she's tried many over the years, but thinks it is nice for a woman to have one statement fragrance. Her latest favourite is one from Maison Francis Kurkdjian. She also has a signature scent for every movie she does, spraying it on through the shooting, to get her back in character. For Bombay Velvet, it was Dior's mysterious Ambre Nuit; for Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, a movie with heartache and humour, it's the light Hermès Un Jardin sur le Toit. Is she looking forward to the success that accompany most Johar movies? "I don't chase after blockbusters; they happen," she says. Much like life.
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