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With Pa. Ranjith's pan-India action film Vettuvam wrapped ahead of a December release, Sobhita Dhulipala has plenty to look back on. In a conversation with THR India, the actor reflects on her decade-long journey across Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and English projects, beginning at a time when the industry seemed unsure where a newcomer like Dhulipala would fit.
After being crowned Femina Miss India Earth in 2013 and picking up modelling work, the Visakhapatnam-born actor moved to Mumbai to pursue her acting dreams. "I won Miss India Earth and was modelling, but I was like, no, I have more to say," the actor recalls. Auditions followed, but the feedback rarely changed. "All I heard was how I didn't belong," remembered the actor.
Part of the problem lay in the template that prevailed in the industry.
Looks and behaviour seemed to follow a set mould, with a certain “performative bubbliness” seen as an essential trait of a heroine. The mismatch left the actor confused and angry.
That anger travelled to Raman Raghav 2.0, the dark Anurag Kashyap thriller with Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Vicky Kaushal, where Dhulipala played the female lead. By then she had decided to take the challenge head on. "That's when I had decided, 'If I don't belong, fine. I don't even want to belong.'"
The roles that followed tell her story. There was Made in Heaven (2019) in Hindi, Moothon (2019) and Kurup (2021) in Malayalam, Goodachari (2018) and Major (2022) in Telugu, and the Ponniyin Selvan films in Tamil. In 2024 came her Hollywood debut as Sita in Dev Patel's Monkey Man.
Looking back, Dhulipala says that she spotted a pattern: "I am often a woman whose centre of gravity is in herself. She's not there to prop up a man's thing."
Dhulipala argues that Indian screens have long defined women through the male gaze, as the hero's mother or partner. This leaves out a large female audience that wants to see women as themselves on screen.
Vettuvam marks Sobhita’s return to Tamil cinema following her appearances in Ponniyin Selvan: I (2022) and Ponniyin Selvan: II (2023). The actor has described the post-apocalyptic film as her strongest work so far, calling it an “extraordinary project".
Watch our fully interview with Dhulipala on The Hollywood Reporter India's YouTube channel.