For Banita Sandhu, acting was a calling, winning her first major role in a Bollywood film at 19. It was the start of a global career that has seen her travel the world and recently announce her part in the next Bridgerton series. Here, she talks about juggling her busy work life, raising awareness about depression and how she’s always ready for a new adventure
Words BECKY DONALDSON Photography TOM O’NEILL Styling LAURA WEATHERBURN
Since landing her first major role in a Bollywood movie aged 19, whilst in her first year at King’s College London, British actress Banita Sandhu quickly learnt to “work smart”.
Her performance in director Shoojit Sircar’s Hindi-language coming-of-age drama October was critically acclaimed and Banita was nominated for an esteemed Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut, with Vogue India naming her, ‘The Face to Watch Out For’.
But, despite garnering rave reviews, this inaugural role wasn’t part of the plan. “I’d made an agreement with my parents that I’d finish my degree before becoming a full-time actress,” she tells us when we meet before her Hello! Fashion cover shoot.
Keeping to the agreement to complete her degree, whilst filming Banita took classes online and found herself writing essays on set with her director and during the many flights to and from London and India.
“It was a very crazy time. I don’t have regrets, but I wasn’t really able to enjoy either of the experiences fully. I was mentally trying to juggle the two and just survive. But now I feel lucky that my career started when it did, as it meant by the time I left university I had a platform, rather than graduating and then starting from ground zero.”
Not showing any signs of slowing down, following October, Banita, who has recently been announced as starring in the next season of Bridgerton, was cast for the 2019 Tamil movie Adithya Varma and Hindi film Sardar Udham. She also played the leads in Mother Teresa & Me and the US science-fiction series Pandora.
“We didn’t film that in America, it was actually shot in Bulgaria,” she laughs. “That was a crazy year of travel for me because I was filming in India and then also shooting in Bulgaria, so I was flying between the two and there were no direct flights.”
Pandora was her first experience of working on an American production. “It was so interesting to see how things work, because I’d only ever worked in the UK or India before that.”
But the main difference, she tells us, was that it was a TV show, rather than a film. “When you’re shooting a movie, it’s such a creatively immersive experience
