The Kerala Story actor Adah Sharma on flying prep, trolls, love and ‘never cheating’ on diet or life

Edited excerpts:

Q: What’s up these days?

Adah: I’m currently in Kanha, Madhya Pradesh. I’m working with the forest department of Madhya Pradesh for Anubhuti. The aim of the programme is to sensitise the students towards nature and wildlife, to educate them on how the wilderness spaces and the denizens living within are crucial to our own survival.

Q: What are your goals or milestones that you are looking forward to in 2026?

Adah: My main goal is to understand why my charger works at only one angle, win all imaginary arguments with dignity and practice selective invisibility.

Q: You are known for your intense fitness preparations for your roles. What’s your current fitness routine like…kindly detail it for us?

Adah: I’m currently doing a film where I’m playing a non-human entity. I’m required to fly for that. So I’m practising flying. I’m really enjoying it. It’s not as easy as it looks. I have to have these long conversations negotiating with gravity. I drink lots of water. I’ve been told hydration helps wings. The crow outside my window is impressed with my progress.

Q: How do you reflect on your journey?

Adah: I had a rebellious thought one day, and I went along with it without thinking it through, and I’ve landed up here now. I’ve been fortunate to get 1920 as my debut…I think that’s the role of a lifetime, and the action I got to do in Commando, comedy in Sunflower and The Kerala Story, which won so many hearts and became the highest female lead-grossing film of all time.

Q: What does a balanced meal look like to you?

Adah: Every state in India has balanced vegetarian meals. If you take the food from say North India, you will have rotis your carbs, there will be a dal or channa rajma, which is protein, and there will be vegetables. In South, your coconut is your protein, dosas have carbs, lentils, and vegetables. North East cuisine uses a lot of leafy greens, bamboo shoots, and local vegetables, providing vitamins, minerals, and fibre. Cooking uses mustard oil, sesame oil, and coconut oil, keeping fat intake moderate. For me, at home, gut-friendly food is what we eat.

Q: And cheat meals are?

Adah: I believe if you cheat in small aspects of life, you train your brain to cheat at big things. So I never cheat.

Q: Where do you find the most comfort?

Adah: In my imagination.

Adah Sharma loves working out (Photo: PR Handout)

Q: You are known for your quirky social media presence… is it something more consciously done?

Adah: Normal feels like a polite lie. I’d rather be strange than rehearsed. So no, it isn’t consciously done. I don’t wake up and curate a personality. I just refuse to edit myself into something digestible. Authenticity scares people more than performance so it might make some uncomfortable. I like my social media to be – jo hai, woh hai (whatever it is, it is).

Q: What is a typical day in your life like?

Adah: No one day is typical since my birth this lifetime.

Q: How do you deal with low days?

Adah: I assume everything is my fault — the weather, global warming, everything. Eventually, I resurface, embarrassed but alive, like nothing happened, and then I eat sambar rice.

Q: What’s your skincare routine like?

Adah: Not looking too much into the mirror. When I do, then I see imaginary pimples that I once had. I see scars that those pimples have left. I rethink being in a field that requires me to look presentable. So, as much as I can, I avoid mirrors.

Q: How do you deal with competition?

Adah: I’m looking hard for it. Got my eyes checked. They said my vision is 6/6.

Q: Trolls have been everywhere….what’s your mantra to deal with them?

Adah: They are also people. I include them in my life as well. They are, after all just humans. Frustrated ones, but they are human. All the people who don’t know who give me compliments we happily acknowledge them so I acknowledge the poor trolls also. They shouldn’t feel left out.

 

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Q: Do you feel the pressure of constant social connectedness?

Adah: The whole world is your family now and I think that’s so delightful. We can be connected to people around the world. I learn yoga from a girl in France who shares videos online. I learn Carnatic music from my teacher in Chennai. I watch vegan cooking recipes from Spain. We learn about nature, the environment from all over the globe. Without having to meet anyone physically, we can be connected. I’m a very private person. I enjoy it.

Q: There was this bizarre piece of news that you have been creating an AI doppleganger…what was that?

Adah: I’m working on creating a look-alike of me. So I will be sending her out in public to test her. She speaks and behaves like me but is in the testing phase.

Q: What’s your take on modern love and terms like situationships?

Adah: I believe only in ‘saat janmon ka saath’ (Together for seven lifetimes). So I need a partner who can also tolerate me for 7 lifetimes. I’m willing to compromise and do 6 if he really loves me. But I can’t do lesser. I believe all of us are recycled. And we have multiple births. One should try out marriage for sure in at least one of the births.

Q: If you were to get yourself into the millennial vs Gen Z vs Gen Alpha debate, what would be your take?

Adah: I think we are all on the same side, we all have the exact same feelings. The same things make us happy, and the same things make us sad. We also all want the same things in life.

Q: Is there any message you want to give to newbies looking to make a mark?

Adah: They are already well-equipped and well-exposed. Just try to use your imagination more and not only rely on what someone else is telling you. If you aren’t from the industry, be excellent at what you do, because you don’t know when opportunity will strike and when it does you should be ready.