Apart from being a trained Bharatanatyam dancer, Pallavi Sharda is an Indian-Australian actress and Miss India Australia pageant winner. Having started her career in 2010 with a cameo appearance in My Name Is Khan, Pallavi went on to act in movies like Besharam, Hawaizaada, and Begum Jaan in prominent roles.
Early LifeBorn and brought up in Australia, both of Pallavi’s parents, Dr. Hema Sharda and Dr. Nalin Kant Sharda, are IITians and are professional doctors. While her mother is the director of South Asian Relations at the University of Western Australia, her father is computer science professor at Victoria University. While she was studying at Lowther Hall Anglican Grammar School in Essendon, Victoria, she also began her Bharatanatyam training under the wings of Srimati Renuka Arumughasamy and performed her Arangetram at the Kalanjali School of Dance. Upon completing her schooling, she pursued her LLB and BA (Media & Communications) & Diploma in Modern Languages (French) at the University of Melbourne. In order to kick-start her acting career, Pallavi moved to Mumbai from Melbourne in 2010, which is the same year that she was crowned Miss India Australia pageant held in Australia.
Movie CareerImmediately after moving to Mumbai, in 2010, Pallavi was seen making a cameo appearance in Karan Johar’s drama My Name Is Khan, playing the role of Sajida Khan. The movie, starring Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol, highlighted the racism faced by Muslims in few parts of the world, and went on to receive high acclaim from its subject and the performances. Next, she was paired opposite Manoj Bajpayee in the comedy drama Dus Tola, which opened to mixed reviews. The following year, in 2011, she was seen playing a supporting role in the Zayed Khan and Dia Mirza-starrer Love Breakups Zindagi, which failed to impress the critics given its predictable plot. She played the role of Zayed Khan’s character’s dominating girlfriend Radhika in the movie.
In 2012, she was seen in yet another cameo appearance in Heroine, playing the role of Gayatri, the actress who replaces Kareena Kapoor Khan’s character in a movie. Although Kareena’s performance garnered her immense praise, the movie failed at the box-office. The same year, she appeared in the Australian movie Save Your Feet, which focuses on the life of a die-hard cricket fan and his mission of wanting to meet the legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar. Finally seen playing a lead role, Pallavi was cast alongside Ranbir Kapoor in the action comedy Besharam, which also starred real-life couple Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh. The movie bombed at the box-office and was declared a disaster.
Next, Pallavi was seen sharing screen space with Ayushmann Khurrana in the biopic Hawaizaada, which based on the life Shivkar Bapuji Talpade, an Indian scholar who is believed to have constructed and flown an unmanned airplane in 1895. Despite the interesting subject of the movie, it failed to rake in any profits and was declared a disaster. She then made a special appearance in the Australian romantic comedy unINDIAN starring Brett Lee and Tannishtha Chatterjee. Seen in a blink-and-miss role, Pallavi was a part of the Oscar-winning movie Lion, which is based on the true story of Saroo Brierley, who was separated from his mother in India and was adopted by an Australian couple, who take him to Australia with them. Upon growing up, Saroo returns to India in search of his biological mother. The movie, starring Dev Patel, Rooney Mara, Nicole Kidman, David Wenham, and Sunny Pawar in pivotal roles, went on to garner positive acclaim globally and also received five Academy Award nominations, winning two of them.
In 2017, Pallavi was seen in Begum Jaan, which comprised an ensemble cast of Vidya Balan, Gauahaar Khan, Ila Arun, Naseeruddin Shah, Priyanka Setia, Ridheema Tiwari, and Flora Saini among many others. The period drama is loosely based on Shyam Benegal's 1986 movie Mandi and is also the Hindi remake of the Bengali movie Rajkahini.