Zahrah S Khan Calls Mohanlal 'Polite, Simple,' Reveals Bagging Vrushabha Without Audition | Exclusive

In 2013, veteran singer-actor Salma Agha’s daughter Zahrah S Khan made her acting debut with Arjun Kapoor’s action thriller titled Aurangzeb. Credited as Sasheh Aagha in the film, Zahrah played the part of Arjun’s glamorous love interest and even crooned the peppy number, Barbaadiyaan. The film largely received positive reviews but eventually tanked at the box office. Soon after, Zahrah forayed into music full time and belted out chartbusters like Aafat, The Punjaabaan Song, Kinna Sona and Kusu Kusu, among others.

A decade later, she finally feels ‘ready’ to return to acting. Her comeback film is titled Vrushabha and is billed as a pan-Indian epic actioner. It also stars Malayalam superstar Mohanlal and Shanaya Kapoor in her onscreen debut. Recently, Zahrah took to social media to share pictures from the shoot of the film that began on July 22. And in an exclusive chat with News18, she opens on Vrushabha for the first time. “I was in Mysore up until two days ago. I flew in a couple of days ago. I’ve already done the muhurat shot. I’m now prepping for the film. I’m very excited about it,” she tells us.

A post shared by Zahrah S Khan (@zarakhan)

Talking about Mohanlal, she says, “I’ve met him. He’s so sweet. He’s a very quiet person. He’s very focused on his work. He doesn’t care about anything else, what’s happening around him and who’s doing what. He just comes to the set, does his thing and goes back.” Zahrah further adds, “When you meet him, it doesn’t feel like you’re meeting such a huge star from south. He’s very simple, polite and docile. It’s refreshing to see that!”

The singer will be seen playing a warrior princess in the film and as per reports, Shanaya will be seen playing a version of the same role. Zahrah shares that she landed the project without having to audition and shedding more light on the same, she says, “We did a look test. Until and unless someone sees me in Indian wear, they think that I’m a very modern girl. It happens to me a lot. Our producer Juhi (Parekh Mehta) was very happy. She told, ‘This girl will look very good in Indian and we need to definitely put her in nice south Indian clothes.’ The look test went really well.”

She continues, “I’m at that stage where I want to get into acting fully. I thought it was the right project to resume my acting career with. It’s a great script and my role as a warrior princess was very demanding and that excited me. It has a full period look to it. It’s a beautiful film and it’s something I always wanted to do. I love wearing Indian clothes. You’ll always see me wearing kurtas and I love jhumkas and bindis.”

But what has posed a challenge is learning a new language. At present, Zahrah is also busy learning sword fighting as she will be performing some action-based sequences in Vrushabha. “It’s a pan-Indian Hindi and Telugu film and so, I’ve got a Telugu coach. He’s helping me with the dialect. It’s a good, fun challenge to learn a new language. Apart from that, you’ll see me doing some exciting action scenes. I’ve to learn sword fighting. It makes the character challenging and I’m happy to be doing something so meaty and substantial. Not only is the look perfect but it also will give me a lot of scope to perform,” she elaborates.

Vrushabha is all set to hit the screens in 2024.