Ananya Birla on Bagging 'Shlok': 'I Had Never Thought About Acting Until Kunal Kohli...' | Exclusive

Entrepreneur Ananya Birla marked her singing debut with the single Livin’ The Life in 2016 and ever since, there has been no looking back for her. She shot to international fame as she became the first Indian artiste to have received a platinum status on her English single and be featured on an American national top 40 pop radio show Sirius XM Hits. And last year, she marked her OTT debut when she featured in the song Inaam from actor Ajay Devgn starrer web series Rudra: The Edge Of Darkness.

And now, Ananya is all set to add a new feather to her hat as she will be marking a full-fledged acting debut with a film titled Shlok – The Desi Sherlock. The spy thriller also stars actor Bobby Deol and is directed by filmmaker Kunal Kohli. In an exclusive chat with News18, the debutante shares her experience on working on her first film. Talking about collaborating with Bobby, she says, “It was a great experience filming it. My biggest reward is the amount of love I got on the set. I was treated like an absolute equal. Bobby sir is amazing to work with and super talented.”

Quiz her about her experience of being directed by Kunal, who has helmed films like Hum Tum (2004) and Fanaa (2006), and Ananya remarks, “Kunal was able to guide me just perfectly. I had the creative freedom to give inputs and change certain things around. I learnt a lot from my director.” Unlike most actors, who wants their debut film to release on the big screen, Ananya wishes otherwise. “I hope it goes to an OTT platform and not the cinemas. It’s a murder mystery thriller and it’s appropriate for the web,” she states.

Acting was never a plan for her but the offer to be a part of a film fell into her lap rather serendipitously. Recalling the episode, she says, “I was at Soho House in Mumbai having breakfast with a friend. Kunal suddenly came up to me and told me, ‘Hey, you’re Ananya Birla!’ I didn’t recognise him at first even though I thought that it was a familiar face. He then introduced himself.”

She goes on to adds, “And then, he was like, ‘I found my Jane!’ I was confused and when I asked him about it, he said to me, ‘You had come to Soho House the day before and I was sitting on the table next to you. When you walked in, I just looked up and I was writing a dialogue for Jane. And I thought that you’re my Jane, one of the characters in the film. I would love to have you aboard the film.’”

With no prior acting engagement, Ananya decided to learn the nuances of the craft before going to the sets of the film. The musician says, “I had never thought about acting until that moment and I didn’t even know if I could act. He told me to that nobody knows if I can act and so, we would figure that out. So, I thought of reading the script. After reading it, I started taking acting coach. It was a great experience and I really enjoyed it.” So, is there a plan of taking up acting professionally? “Back then, I didn’t really think much about it. Maybe it will be a one-off thing or I’ll do a film in five years. I prepared the best I could and hopefully, I was able to deliver,” Ananya tells us.

But be it music, acting or entrepreneurship, the one thing that she wants to focus on is striking a chord with the audience and she has derived the importance of this lesson from ‘one of her icons’ – late music sensation Kurt Cobain and that she has applied it to everything that she has dabbled in. “One of the reasons I’ve always looked up to him is because he never got too technical with his music and he sang from his heart. If you watch his live performances, you’ll notice that a few notes might not be technically correct – sometimes they would be out of the scale and sometimes, they would sound off to the ears – but that didn’t matter because people connected with him,” says the singer, who has collaborated with music maestro AR Rahman on Hindustani Way for the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

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