Sanya Malhotra

Sanya graduate in Delhi and came to Mumbai to pursue a film career. She had participated in a dance reality show called the Dance India Dance and had made it to the top 100.     She started appearing for auditions for films and simultaneously started assisting camerapersons for television commercials.

She worked in advertisements for casting director Mukesh Chhabra and did an audition.  She was immediately selected for Nitesh Tiwari’s biographical sports film ‘ Dangal’ along with the main leads Fatima Sana Shaikh and Aamir Khan.

In her debut film in the role of Babita Kumari in the biographical film Dangal released in 2016, she had a very significant presence.   The film was about wrestling and Sanya had no clue or idea on what the sport is all about. She had never seen any matches so went on to watch several videos on wrestling.

She then starred in the comedy-drama film ‘Badhaai Ho’ in 2018 starring opposite Ayushman Khurana and the film ranked to be one of the highest grossing Indian films.  Along with Fatima Sana Sheikh she went through five rounds of auditions, physical training and workshops with Tiwari and Aamir Khan.    They were trained under former wrestler Kripa Shankar Patel Bisnoi.   The film was a superhit and had achieved a strong commercial success and went on to become the highest grossing film in 2017.

Sanya also choreographed the song ‘Sexy Baliye’ from the film, ‘Secret Superstar’ from the same film that featured Aamir Khan. After the success of Dangal, she was once again seen in Vishal Bhardwaj’s drama ‘ Pataakha’ along with the debutant actress Radhika Madan.  The film was based on the story of Do Behnen by Charan Singh Pathik, which revolved around the two sisters in Rajasthan who were always in conflict.     Both Radhika and Sanya met the real women of Rajasthan for the dialect and to understand the character nuances.    They lived in Ronsi village near Jaipur and learnt to get accustomed with milking buffaloes, thatching roofs, plastering walls with cow dung and walk long distances balancing the matkas on their head. She also had to gain 10 kgs for this role.  She played the role like a fearless actress with lot of experience . 

Her next venture was in Ritesh Batra’s romance film Photograph along with Nawazuddin Siddiqui.  The film was screened at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival.      She was applauded for her role in the film as the dreamy eyed participant that embraced the film’s story with her quiet glances and gentle fantasy.

Sanya will soon be seen in the next feature film called the Ludo in Anurag Basu’s anthology film. She will also be seen playing a supporting character of Anupama Banerji, the daughter of Shakuntala Devi in her biopic film which is being directed by Anu Menon and will star Vidya Balan in the protagonist role. Sanya also has a comedy drama film called Pagglait coming up shortly.