Meet actress who used to sit at dance bar, made her debut at 16, struggled for 15 years, then gave Rs 250 crore blockbuster; she is...

In 2023, one particular film, despite facing heavy controversy, protests, and boycott calls, emerged as a major box office success. The Kerala Story, directed by Sudipto Sen, became a sleeper hit and crossed the Rs 300 crore mark without featuring any big-name star. Its unexpected success gave this actress a second chance in the industry, one she clearly made the most of.

The actress, who headlined The Kerala Story, later took on the lead in Bastar, again with the same director. But what really surprised many was her bold choice in between these two films, a role in the second season of Zee5’s hit dark comedy Sunflower, where she portrayed a bar dancer.

To get into character, she took a deeply immersive approach. She revealed in an interview, "I wanted to look convincing and it's not just about when you are dancing, it is about how you sit and stand and how comfortable you are with your body even when you are not performing. They were kind enough to allow me to stay in the bar and observe. I tried to embody the confidence they have while talking to customers. I used to go by 9 in the night at stay till 4, 5 in the morning sometimes."

The dedication paid off, and this actress, better known now as Adah Sharma, has firmly carved a place for herself in an industry that once overlooked her.

Adah Sharma stepped into the film industry at a very young age, just 16, making her debut as the lead in Vikram Bhatt’s horror film 1920, which turned out to be a box office success. While this early start showed promise, her journey in Bollywood didn’t unfold smoothly. She went on to appear in several Hindi films like Phhir, Hasee Toh Phasee, and Bypass Road, but none of them worked commercially. Even her supporting role in Commando 2 only saw moderate success.

Adah found more consistent work in the South, acting in Telugu, Tamil, and Kannada films, but mainstream Bollywood success continued to elude her until 2023. That year marked a turning point with The Kerala Story, a film made on a modest budget of ₹20 crore.

 

 

 

 

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It went on to earn ₹303 crore at the box office, making it the most profitable film of the year with a staggering 1400% return on investment. It wasn’t just a hit—it was the film that finally put Adah back on the Bollywood map.