Today marks the 36th birthday of Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma. The prolific actress has worked in 19 films over her 16-year-long career. Out of these, 13 were hits while 6 were flops. These also include the highest grossing blockbuster films of their release year like 'PK' and 'Sanju'.
Anushka's acting career took a break after marrying Indian cricket team's star cricketer Virat Kohli in 2017. She has been away from acting for the last 6 years. However, despite this, Anushka's social media fan following is more than that of superstars like Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan. Anushka has 67.4 million followers on the social media platform Instagram, which is more than Amitabh Bachchan (37.5 million) and Shah Rukh Khan (46.7 million).
On the 36th birthday of the actress, here are some facts related to her career records and personal life:
Early life & childhood
Anushka was born on May 1, 1988 in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh. His father Colonel Ajay Kumar Sharma is an army officer and mother Ashima Sharma is a homemaker. There is an elder brother, Karnesh Sharma, who was earlier in the Merchant Navy, but is now a film producer. Anushka studied mostly in Bangalore and Mumbai. Sakshi Dhoni, wife of cricketer and former captain MS Dhoni, was also Anushka's classmate.
Since her father was in the army, Anushka has been very disciplined since childhood. In an interview in 2012, Anushka had revealed that - 'I feel prouder to say that I am the daughter of an army officer than to call myself an actress.'
Anushka herself had told in an interview that she had neither watched films growing up nor did she want to become an actor. She wanted to make a career in modelling or journalism. After graduation, Anushka shifted to Mumbai to focus on her modelling career.
After doing several ads in the beginning of her career, Anushka made her runway debut at Lakme Fashion Week in 2007. She was chosen by famous fashion designer Wendell Rodricks as the final model for his Spring Summer Collection 2007. It was from here that Anushka started getting ads for hair oil, shampoo and jewellery.
Beginnings of the Acting Career
In 2008, Anushka started her acting career with Yash Raj banner film 'Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi'. However, at that time filmmaker Karan Johar did not want her to be cast in this film.
After seeing Anushka's photo, he told the film's director and producer Aditya Chopra that he should not cast Anushka in the film. Karan wanted Aditya to give a chance to some other actress. However, Aditya trusted Anushka and he signed a deal with the actress for not just one but 3 films.
The first 3 films of Anushka's career were of Yash Raj banner. While 'Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi' was a hit, 'Badmaash Company' and 'Band Baaja Baaraat' performed average in the box office. Anushka's first film outside the Yash Raj banner was 'Patiala House', which unfortunately flopped. After this, the actress again worked in two more Yash Raj films, 'Jab Tak Hai Jaan' and 'Ladies vs Ricky Bahl'. Both were box-office hits.
'NH10' was a hit, while 'Bombay Velvet' was the biggest flop. The year 2015 was one of mixed emotions for Anushka. This year the actress released her first film 'NH10' made under her production house Clean Slate Films. In this, Anushka herself played the lead role and the film was a hit at the box office.
At the same time, Anurag Kashyap directed 'Bombay Velvet', released this year, proved to be the biggest flop of Anushka's career. Made with a budget of Rs 120 crore, this film did a business of only Rs 23.71 crore in the country.
Apart from this, Anushka also did films like 'PK' with Aamir Khan, 'Sultan' with Salman Khan and 'Sanju' with Ranbir Kapoor in her career. All these three films made big earning records and were the highest grossing films of their respective release years. The actress has worked with Shahrukh Khan in 4 films. She holds the acclaim of being one of the few actresses who has worked with all three Khans (Shah Rukh, Aamir and Salman).
Personal life & relationships
After coming to Bollywood, Anushka's name was linked to Ranveer Singh, co-star of the film 'Band Baaja Baaraat'. Both of them dated each other for some time, but they soon separated. However, both of them never commented on their relationship publicly.
Superhit films of Anushka's career:
Rs. 157 crores: Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (2008)
Second highest grossing Hindi film of the year
Rs. 239.56 crores: Ae Dil Hai Mushkil (2016)
Third highest grossing Hindi film of the year
Rs. 280 crores: Jab Tak Hai Jaan (2012)
Third highest grossing Hindi film of the year
Rs. 586.85 crores: Sanju (2018)
Highest grossing Hindi film of the year
Rs. 600 crores: Sultan (2016)
One of the biggest hits of Anushka Sharma’s career.
Rs. 854 crores: PK (2014)
Highest grossing Hindi film of the year
Her last film as an actress 'Zero' was a flop
Meanwhile, Anushka also gave hit films like 'Ae Dil Hai Mushkil' and 'Sui Dhaaga' in her acting career. However, Anushka's last film as an actress was Shah Rukh Khan starrer 'Zero' released in 2018. It was a flop at the box office. Since then, Anushka has produced OTT projects like 'Bulbul', 'Paatal Lok' and 'Kala'.
As per reports, Katrina Kaif initially wanted to do the role of the scientist in the film Zero which was played by Anushka Sharma. Kaif had told in an interview that after the narration of the film was over, she had told the director that she wanted to play Anushka's role. For this, she even went home and recorded the audition tape. But Anushka had already been cast for this role.
Anushka played the role of a wrestler in 'Sultan' released in 2016. The makers were initially going to cast Mrunal Thakur for this role. However, at that time, due to some other project, Mrunal had lost a lot of weight, hence she became unfit for this role.
Virat-Anushka love story
Virat-Anushka's love story started with a shampoo ad. Talking about love life, Anushka met cricketer Virat Kohli during the shooting of a shampoo ad in 2013. In an interview, Virat had said “When I met Anushka for the first time, I was very nervous. However, after the first conversation I started feeling comfortable with her.”
Anushka Sharma & Virat Kohli Earnings
According to the report of GQ, the combined net worth of Virat and Anushka is Rs 1300 crore. Out of this, Kohli's net worth is Rs 1050 crores, while Anushka's net worth is around Rs 255 crores.
As per reports, Anushka earns Rs. 7 crores per project and Rs 5 to 10 crore from brand endorsement. She also earns approx. Rs 95 lakhs for making a post on Insta.
Apart from this, the actress also earns from her production house and clothing line Nush. Virat-Anushka's earnings can be estimated from the fact that the couple pays an annual salary of Rs 1.2 crore to their personal bodyguard Prakash alias Sonu.
Awards and Achievements
Anushka has received 8 Filmfare nominations so far. Out of this, she once won the Filmfare Best Supporting Actress for the film 'Jab Tak Hai Jaan'.
The actress has done 7 films with Yash Raj banner in her career so far. The actress who has done the most films (12) with Yash Raj is Rani Mukherjee.
There have been 6 films of Anushka's career so far which were included in the list of top 3 highest grossing Hindi films of their respective release years.
Even though Anushka has been on an acting break for the last 6 years, there has been no decrease in her fan following. The actress is going to make a comeback with the film 'Chakda Express' after 6 years of marriage. This is the biopic depicting the life of female cricketer Jhulan Goswami.