When she graduated from FTII in 2011, Sayani Gupta was on the fence about Bollywood (“It’s just a small pocket of an actor’s life”). The theatre enthusiast had only acted in a string of indie shorts (including Vasan Bala’s Bunny) and plays until then. But when her month-long audition to play Khanum, Kalki Koechlin’s blind-activist love interest in Margarita, With A Straw, was done, she knew she’d found the right place for her — “I was like, who are these people trying to make such a film in India? I have to do it.” In her next project, Anurag Basu’s musical Jagga Jasoos (out next year), she stars alongside Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif, and while she’s tight-lipped about the plot, she confirms that the biggest concern on set is “if there are kebabs for teatime.”
Photographs: Manasi Sawant; Styling: Nidhi Jacob; Make-up and hair Mitesh Rajani. On Sayani: Linen dress, Eka. Wool coat, Miuniku. Faux fur mules, Kenzo
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