Adah Sharma on The Kerala Story, Backlash, Threats & Handling Rejection | Shekhar Natarajan | Tomorrow Today
September 22, 2026
AI Summary
5 min readWhen a Horror Movie Becomes a Cult Classic: Adah Sharma on Acting, Resilience, and the Kerala Story
Adah Sharma has never been the first choice for any of her major films — not for her breakout horror hit 1920, not for Commando, not for Hasee Toh Phasee, and not even for The Kerala Story, the film that made her impossible to ignore. "I've always been second or third choice," she says flatly. "But the final one." That pattern — being overlooked, then proving herself — runs through her entire career and, as she tells host Shekhar Natarajan on Tomorrow, Today, through much of her life before acting as well.
Learning to Act in Real Life Before the Camera
Sharma grew up in the same Mumbai house she lived in for decades, in a Tamil Brahmin family with a merchant navy father and a Malayali mother. But the formative insight about performance came early, around fourth standard. She was first in class, first in sports, first in everything — and realized that being exceptional made other kids dislike her. So she began acting: deliberately scoring third instead of first, feigning mediocrity to fit in. "I learned acting at quite a young age because I used to do it in real life," she says. "If you are like everybody else, then everyone really likes you."
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:00) **Introduction & Host's Mission** - Host Shekhar Natarajan explains the podcast's purpose: using AI to capture the soul of good people and build a community of what a good human looks like.
- 2 (05:00) **Adah’s Upbringing & Early Acting** - Adah describes her mixed heritage (Tamil Brahmin father, Malayali mother) and how she learned to "act" in real life to fit in and make friends.
- 3 (07:40) **Childhood, Memory, & Coping Mechanisms** - Adah discusses her vivid memory from age three and a half, and how she uses humor as a self-defense mechanism to deal with trauma.
- 4 (12:56) **Animals, Family, & Slum Roots** - Adah shares her non-discriminatory love for all animals, inspired by her mother who once rescued a hawk.
- 5 (15:36) **The Host’s Origin Story** - Shekhar Natarajan recounts his journey from a slum in Hyderabad to becoming a mechanical engineer and eventually a successful entrepreneur.
- 6 (18:00) **Adah’s Entry into Acting** - Adah explains how a chance meeting with a manager at a school event led her to take terrible "garish" photos and start auditioning.
- 7 (31:58) **The 1920 Breakthrough & Typecasting** - Adah describes her first major role in the horror film *1920*, for which she was not the first choice and had to be made to look "English."
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Guests on this episode
Show Notes
In this clip from Tomorrow, Today, Adah Sharma and Shekhar Natarajan discuss:
- The intense response surrounding The Kerala Story
- Receiving recognition and criticism at the same time
- The leak of Adah's phone number shortly before the film's release
- Threats and uncertainty surrounding the theatrical release
- The controversy and public interpretations of the film
- How criticism can affect someone even when they appear unaffected
- Why Adah doesn't pretend to be completely detached from rejection
- How her response to rejection has changed as she has grown older
- Learning to recover faster from professional setbacks
- The difference between appearing strong and actually processing emotions
The conversation offers a candid look at the personal side of public scrutiny, professional rejection, and resilience.
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