It’s been 10 years of Sobhita Dhulipala, the actor. We first encountered her on screen as the troubled, emotionally guarded Maya in Raman Raghav 2.0. Over the years, she has inhabited women who are complicated, ambitious and rarely easy to categorise — from the fiercely driven Tara Khanna in Made in Heaven to the formidable Kaveri in The Night Manager. If there is a thread running through Sobhita’s oeuvre, it is perhaps her instinct for women with agency — women who can be difficult, contradictory and occasionally unlikeable. Next, the actor will be seen in Pa. Ranjith’s Vettuvam, a film she says she “poured all of myself into — much more than ever before”. It is also a project she plunged into almost immediately after her wedding to actor Naga Chaitanya. In this conversation with The Hollywood Reporter India, our October cover star looks back at a decade of acting, the women who have shaped her journey and her relationship with ChatGPT.
Edited excerpts from the conversation.
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER INDIA: It’s 10 years of Sobhita the actor — Raman Raghav 2.0 came out in 2016. Looking back, what is the enduring emotion?
SOBHITA DHULIPALA: It’s crazy when you say 10 years. I’ve had a career across regions and languages. I’ve done Moothon and Kurup in Malayalam, worked in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi, primarily in streaming. It’s been so diverse I didn’t feel the time pass. Every place I went, I felt new. It felt like I was taking many births.
THR INDIA: Roughly 18 projects in, could you have planned this trajectory on a vision board a decade ago?
DHULIPALA: My path has been about taking opportunities I have access to and throwing myself at the ones I feel strongly about. I couldn’t have planned it. But looking back, a pattern emerges: I am often a woman whose centre of gravity is in herself. Not defined by or propping up a man’s story. I have remained a woman with agency or wanting agency or attempting to have agency.
THR INDIA: So, this wasn’t conscious? What draws you to these morally messy, agency-driven women?
DHULIPALA: Women are so interesting because they’re human, they’re real, they have so many shades. For a long time, women have been defined by the male gaze — the hero’s mother, the hero’s partner. But there’s a large female population that wants to see itself on screen outside that lens. I naturally gravitated towards people I was curious about.
THR INDIA: They aren’t written often enough. We recently spoke to (director) Venky Atluri about respecting a new industry’s culture rather than bending it to suit you. How did you adapt across sets?
DHULIPALA: I didn’t really do template roles. I was cast when the filmmaker was damn sure they wanted me. Mostly, it’s been those kinds of parts. And there is such a natural alignment, that when I went to these sets, and mind you, most of these sets, like a Goodachari or a Major in Telugu — these are not sets with a lot of infrastructure already packed in. Or even my work in Hindi, whether it’s Raman Raghav 2.0 or Moothon with Geetu Mohandas — largely independent cinema in its own way. We moved as a pack; we moved as a team. I didn’t feel the need to adapt. It felt natural, like different instruments playing the same song.
THR INDIA: So, there's no difference in how these industries operate, or is it just the nature of these particular films?
DHULIPALA: It could be that I’ve been on sets I didn’t relate to. But adapting is fun. Imagine this: an outdoor film set, open land, a bunch of people, a small area for snacks. It’s literally like a circus troupe. We’re all staying in hotels and lodges. We’re all acting and trying to create this thing. Inherently, I accept that we are just storytellers and the duty should be towards that storytelling.
THR INDIA: You’ve spoken in the past about channelling a deep anger into Raman Raghav 2.0. Have you since made sense of where it came from?
DHULIPALA: Anger isn’t a bad emotion, in my view. I’m a sensitive person and that was a tricky time. I didn’t see many people who looked like me being celebrated. I was doing lots of auditions, I’d won Miss India, I was modelling, and all I heard was how I didn’t belong. I was very young, a girl from Vizag, not very clever about any of it. There was a performative bubbliness expected of ‘heroine material.’ I was confused, I was angry. I came to Raman Raghav 2.0 with that but it was sincere, so it became a natural direction-giver.
THR INDIA: That’s exactly what you then gravitated towards — women who are flawed, messy, ambiguous, finally seen.
DHULIPALA: Who does it help when someone is black and white? A brand. But a human being can’t be like that, no? I feel like actors are built to be brands. Nothing wrong with it but at that age, I didn’t have someone to break it down to me. You become saleable, and with that visibility, you can also be part of things you like. I didn’t know all this.
THR INDIA: That reminds me of something Jim Sarbh said — that when Neerja did so well, he didn’t know how to process the fame. I wish someone had taught you how to make sense of it too.
DHULIPALA: It’s this wisdom. An industry sounds like one union of people but it’s quite fragmented. Coming from outside, I didn’t know how to belong. So, I kept throwing myself at work that let me show range and versatility.
THR INDIA: After The Night Manager, you had also been voted number one on IMDb’s Most Popular Indian Celebrities. You said then that you wanted to show you were more than desirable and sexy. How has that journey been?
DHULIPALA: It’s a visual medium — when someone has a certain shell, that becomes a major part of how they’re remembered. If someone finds me attractive, will I complain? Hell no. But it’s my duty to let them see more of me. Made in Heaven gave me so much visibility but there was so much work before it that never reached that level.
THR INDIA: Is it true that your family, your parents, haven’t watched Made in Heaven?
DHULIPALA: Yeah, can you believe it? They said their Wi-Fi was down. My parents are my biggest trolls. I think that’s true for every Indian family.
THR INDIA: You’ve called your work in Pa. Ranjith’s Vettuvam your best yet. What made it so exciting?
DHULIPALA: The thing is, I feel like, since Made in Heaven, the parts I’ve played have had one register — a woman who has a lot under the surface, a backbone of steel underneath. There was a grace on top and a lot happening under the water. I felt like this was such a beautiful opportunity for me to play someone who also has a backbone of steel.
This role was very front-footed. She doesn’t give a damn what anyone thinks. She’s very free. Someone who laughs and screams and spits and punches and there’s a vitality to it. I thought that was so refreshing because we don’t really see women like that. I’d been praying for a part like this. It’s crazily written. What a world.
THR INDIA: Unlike the anger in Raman Raghav 2.0, what did Pa. Ranjith get you to channel into this role?
DHULIPALA: Funnily, I’m very animated and free in expression. I didn’t realise I’d gotten used to playing someone who had to be restrained. So, I think he saw me for who I am. I don’t know what his original idea of the character was, but he encouraged me to just unleash the dragon. So, I think he’s someone who sees a woman as a very powerful being and he admires it, as a man and as a storyteller.
THR INDIA: Does playing a character ever reshape who you are off-screen?
DHULIPALA: If someone was playing an asshole, they’ll call it ‘being in character’. If they play an amazing person, they say, ‘I was just being myself’. I think every person is capable of everything — the raw material is the same, we’re just shaped differently. Every person has a shadow side. If you have the courage to see it, accept it, and play it without judgement — that’s where the authenticity is. And I think storytellers and performers must sit with it.
THR INDIA: What’s it like being married to an actor? You once said you’d never date one, that the vanity of it makes you lose hope in life.
DHULIPALA: I think I was stereotyping, based on what I saw around me at the time. That was me being narrow. I’m okay having different opinions at different points, and okay with myself adapting.
THR INDIA: You also once said love is ‘a necessity and a luxury’. Now that you’ve found a sense of home, has that definition taken on new meaning?
DHULIPALA: I don’t think love is a relationship. Love is a state of mind, a vibration. It sounds a little woo-woo. I don’t only think of it as romantic. I’m always feeling love.
THR INDIA: So much of the conversation around you then became about your personal life. As an introvert, was that hard to navigate?
DHULIPALA: Honestly, society is like weather; it comes and goes. If you over-identify with the weather, you’re going to be lost when the weather changes. I’ve been fortunate to stay centred in who I am, eyes open to what the reality is. Finding that stillness is a choice.
THR INDIA: Do you journal?
DHULIPALA: I write down my dreams, actually, when I wake up. They’re chaotic, random, like everyone else’s. But patterns emerge, and I feel there’s something there — guidance, maybe. Ordinary journaling doesn’t motivate me the same way. Science would explain the dreams away, but from another angle, you can ask: is this a message? Is there wisdom here?
THR INDIA: You’ve spoken about how much you enjoy people-watching and backpacking. What fills your cup today?
DHULIPALA: I talk to ChatGPT. I mean, I don’t know how to answer these questions because I feel like there is an expectation that the answer probably has to be meaningful.
Travel is always very inspiring. I actually also quite like photography, being behind the camera, so I do a bit of that. I read. I’ll make music playlists for various vibes, and I’ll send it to people, even if they don’t ask. I listen to podcasts a lot. I started working out. I wasn’t very regular before, but now I think last year’s film inspired me; showed me what the human body is capable of.
THR INDIA: So, you looked the way you did without a regular gym routine?
DHULIPALA: I’ve been lucky, but there’s a cap to it. If I’m working out for an hour, I need two hours to prepare. Half the day goes in that because after I work out, I need to relax because I just worked out.
THR INDIA: Is there a vision board for the next 10 years?
DHULIPALA: When I was younger, I used to think, before I turn 30, I want to do this and that. Now I’m past 30, and when I look back, I feel like I’ve been able to do a lot of what I wanted to do. So, it’s very humbling because now it gives me time to sit and think about what I would like to experience. I would like very much to have a long career of playing women who exist on their terms and not just in one register, but in different forms.
THR INDIA: What is your ambition going forward? You’ve spoken about wanting to be a mother.
DHULIPALA: I’ve always wanted family. But it’s not something I can overemphasise, purely because these things happen when they are meant to happen. As for me as an artiste, the light will continue to flicker and stay alive for a long time.