Privileged Pallavi

In October 2009 Pallavi was part of the Australian delegation at the Asialink-Modernisator ‘Generation 21’ conference in Jakarta, Indonesia, where she performed a contemporary Indian dance piece and advocated at length the need for innovative cultural spheres to be kept alive in the next era of Asia’s growth.

Her beauty complements her brains, and despite the cliché there is no other way to describe Australian bred Indian actress Pallavi Sharda. A heady mix of a beautiful face with some serious smarts, Pallavi is all set to dazzle the world with her multi faceted talent. Pallavi has just returned from India after completing her shoot for upcoming Hindi Film Dus Tola, and is currently in Melbourne to participate in forums that enable intellectual dialogue between India and Australia in relation to attacks on Indian students.

“I am in Melbourne for a specific reason,” reveals Pallavi Sharda “In India I was inundated with queries about Australia and whether it is a safe place to live in and as an Indian Australian, I felt I am indebted to do something about this issue. I feel I am in a position to reach out to the community and provide a positive perspective. I am collaborating with Asia Link and Australia India Institute at the University of Melbourne to help cement relations between the two nations,” she said.

A person’s culture - social, familial, personal - is a product of innumerable influences. Pallavi was raised among a family of academics (both her parents teach in Universities), was an accelerated learner in school and she acquired an education in law and media communications from Melbourne University. She practiced the Indian classical dance form Bharatnatyam for 15 years with Kalanjali School of dance and taught Indian dance at Melbourne University. She is fluent in French, speaks unaccented Hindi and specializes in mimicking accents. Pallavi has performed in dance and theatre productions for most of her young life.

“I am so privileged to have my life,” said Pallavi. “Being able to oscillate between media, law, academics and performing art has made my perspective so unique in the Hindi film industry. This gave me the confidence to make a foray into what is termed as a very ‘difficult’ industry. I feel that I had a crack at it and a certain degree of success.”

It’s not every day that someone gives up a lucrative job offer with a famous law firm to try their luck in a notorious industry like Bollywood. How did her parents feel about her giving up padhai likhai to join Hindi films? “I did not give them much notice or choice,” confessed Pallavi. “I have always entertained the idea of joining the Hindi film industry. I fast-tracked my school and University studies to get there. Born to academics, I was always interested in studies, I always achieved results so my parents felt that they owed it to me and accepted my choice. They give me a lot of confidence and support,” she added.

For Pallavi, it was as tough as predicted. “I can easily say that the last few years have been very difficult and I don’t necessarily have fond memories of my time trying to get a good break. The hardest thing to grapple with was how entrenched people are with a system and how hard it is to offer a fresh or different perspective. I toughed it out and in the end my strong conviction pulled me through,” she revealed.

In 2009 Pallavi played the lead role of Sia in It’s All Been Arranged, an independent crossover film shot in New York. She is currently performing in Anuvab Pal’s dramatic theatre comedy, 1888 Dial India She has worked with stars like Shahrukh Khan in his latest release My name is Khan and in her most recent project Dus Tola she has worked with veteran artist Manoj

Bajpai. Without revealing too much about the film she tells us that it harkens back to innocent cinema of the 70s and is set in rural India. Dus Tola was directed by Ajoy Verma and it took 35 days to complete the shoot.

“For me it is all about performance,” responded Pallavi when asked if being famous and attaining stardom is important to her. “I have a much more glamorous life in Melbourne than I will ever have in Mumbai, so I am not in there for the glamour. The whole notion of stardom as being a goal is strange to me. My goal is to communicate to my audience through art, and if fame and stardom is a byproduct, then so be it,” she said philosophically.

Like her all time favourite actress Madhuri Dixit, Pallavi would love to do roles that challenge her dancing ability. “I would like to play strong female characters but am open to all possibilities. Talks are on with some good directors and producers for future projects; however for the moment I am taking it easy and am happy to be back in Melbourne,” said Pallavi.