India, June 26 -- Anjali Sivaraman dreams of playing Catwoman, starring in a One Piece movie, even acting as the unhinged main character in a psychological thriller. But so far, the 31-year-old actor hasn't done too badly. She's played an ethical hacker, a gaming prodigy, a small-town rebel, and a rebellious teen maturing into a sober adult.

Sivaraman's rise has come in bursts and spurts. She started off as an assistant music producer in 2016, and worked her way up from getting cast in ads for beauty products, beverages and phones, to side-hustling as a lead vocalist in the indie Mumbai band, Gloss. She also beat 100 contenders to play the legendary painter Amrita Sher-Gil in Mira Nair's 2027 biopic, Amri. So, how did she land up here? ...