Anushka Sharma is an Indian actress and model who appears in Hindi films.
Background
Sharma's father, Col. Ajay Kumar Sharma, is an army officer and her mother Ashima Sharma is a housewife. Her father is from Uttar Pradesh and mother from Garhwal division of Uttarakhand. She has an elder brother named Karnesh, who is in the Merchant Navy.
Career
Sharma says she originally wished to make it big in the modeling world but had no strong aspirations for films. She began her modeling career at the Lakme Fashion Week as a model for Wendell Rodricks's "Les Vamps Show" and was picked to be Rodricks's finale model at the Spring Summer '07 Collection. Since then she has done campaigns for "Silk & Shine", "Whisper", "Nathella Jewelry" and "Fiat Palio".
Her first acting role was in Aditya Chopra's "Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi" (2008) with Shahrukh Khan. Her performance was appreciated with film critic. The film received positive reviews and was declared a blockbuster, and had been concluded as the second-highest grossing film of all-time to that point by the end of the year.
Her second film "Badmaash Company" was released on May 7, 2010.
In 2010 Sharma completed her three-film contract with Yash Raj Films, starring in "Band Baaja Baaraat", a romantic comedy directed by Maneesh Sharma and co-starring debutant Ranveer Singh. She played a middle-class Delhi-Punjabi girl, who goes on to launch her own independent business of wedding planning and later falls for her partner. In preparation for the role Sharma was required to master the dialect of a young Punjabi woman from Delhi.
"Band Baaja Baaraat" was released on December 10, 2010 to positive reviews and went on to become a sleeper hit. Sharma's performance was praised by critics, many of whom called it her best work up to that point. It has often been noted that the film has acted as a major career move for the actress, as it brought her much recognition.
Sharma's first venture outside the Yash Raj banner was "Patiala House" directed by Nikhil Advani and co-starring Akshay Kumar. "Patiala House" was released on February 11, 2011. Despite the film's indifferent performance at the box office, Sharma received positive reviews.
Sharma has signed for Anurag Kashyap's "Bombay Velvet" opposite Ranbir Kapoor and movie scheduled to go on floors in April 2013. Anushka has completed shooting for Vishal Bharadwaj's "Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola".