Adah Sharma

Adah Sharma (born on 11 May 1992) (pronounced [ˈʌdə ʃəɾmaː]), is an Indian actress who appears predominantly in Hindi and Telugu films. Sharma, after finishing her schooling, made her acting debut with a leading role in the 2008 Hindi horror film, 1920, a box office success. Her portrayal of a possessed woman in the film was critically praised and earned her a Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut nomination. After the release of her romantic comedy film, Hasee Toh Phasee (2014), she ventured into the South Indian film industry, playing the leading lady in the Telugu film, Heart Attack (2014). Her other major Telugu films include, S/O Satyamurthy (2015) and Kshanam (2016). She also starred as the lead actress in the film The Kerala Story (2023).

Sharma was born in Mumbai. Her father S. L. Sharma (d. 2014), a Tamil Brahmin, hailed from Madurai, Tamil Nadu and was a captain in the Indian Merchant Navy. Her mother Sheila Sharma, a Malayali and native of Nattupura, Palakkad, Kerala, is an Indian classical dancer and mallakhamba yoga practitioner.

Sharma studied at Auxilium Convent High School in Bandra. When she was in tenth grade, she had decided that she wanted to become an actress. She wanted to drop out of school but her parents insisted that she should complete her schooling at least. After completing her twelfth grade, she stopped studying.

Sharma is a gymnast. She has been dancing since the age of three, and has completed her graduation in Kathak from the Natraj Gopi Krishna Kathak Dance Academy in Mumbai. She had learnt salsa for four months in the US, besides jazz and ballet, and has claimed to be "very good" at belly dancing. She is also a practitioner of Silambam, an Indian weapon-based martial art.

Sharma has lived in her Pali Hill house all her life, as she preferred to live close to nature surrounded by trees. In June 2024, she moved to a sea-facing building Mont Blanc in Mumbai which had previously been occupied by Sushant Singh Rajput.

Apart from her mother tongue Tamil, Sharma can speak in English, Marathi, and Hindi, as she was born and brought up in Mumbai.

Trying to break into the film industry, Sharma auditioned for several roles, but was rejected either because of her curly hair or because the casting directors felt that she looked too young. She eventually landed the lead female role in the 2008 Hindi horror film 1920 opposite Rajneesh Duggal which was directed by Vikram Bhatt. Her portrayal of a possessed woman was unanimously praised by critics. The Times of India's Nikhat Kazmi commented that she "delivers a consummate performance", and labelled her performance as "excellent", "[exceptionally] brilliant", and "incredibly convincing". The film was a commercial success, Bhatt's first box office hit after six years and 10 films, and earned Sharma a Best Female Debut nomination at the 54th Filmfare Awards. Three years later, she had her next release, Phhir, again a horror film, which saw her collaborating with Vikram Bhatt, who wrote the film, and her, 1920 co-star Rajneesh Duggal. Phhir, however, was not as well received as, 1920, opening to negative reviews, and failing at the box office, with Sharma getting mixed response for her performance. While Sujata Chakrabarti wrote that "not even for a minute does she exude the intensity of being a psychic", Sify's Sonia Chopra stated that she was "the only one in the film who can act". Her third film, the romantic comedy Hum Hai Raahi Car Ke, released another two years later and was a critical and financial failure.

In 2014, Sharma had two releases: Puri Jagannadh's romance Heart Attack opposite Nithiin, that marked her Telugu debut and a Hindi film Hasee Toh Phasee alongside Sidharth Malhotra and Parineeti Chopra, which released seven days later and featured her in a supporting role. Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama stated, "Adah Sharma is a natural. One strongly feels she hasn't got her due, despite leaving an impression in every film she's featured in." She described her character in the former as "vulnerable, yet extremely sexy" and worked for two months on her Telugu diction. Sharma received positive remarks for her performance in Heart Attack, with The Times of India writing that she "looks like a natural actress and does a decent job" while 123telugu.com felt that she had made a "stunning debut". Both films were commercially successful, with Hasee To Phasee ending up as one of the highest-grossing Hindi films of 2014.