Ayesha Dharkar

Ayesha Dharkar is a pro. She has the distinction of having worked more with foreign directors than Indians.

Born in 1977 in Bombay, India, Ayesha Dharker made her screen debut in 1989 in the French/Swiss production Manika: The Girl Who Lived Twice (which was directed by François Villier). She went on to perform in Roland Joffe's City of Joy, which co-starred veterans like Om Puri and Shabana Azmi, 1992) alongside Patrick Swayze.

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Though the previous films had been noteworthy as well, it was Santosh Sivan's film which finally got Dharkar noticed in and as The Terrorist (India). It was her role as a young female suicide bomber which caught the attention of western film industry. And Sivan's masterful cinematography etched out the girl's performance even more.

This stint was followed by Ismail Merchant casting her in The Mystic Masseur (2001). In the following year she starred alongside Sanjeev Bhaskar in Anita and Me (directed by Metin Hüseyin, 2002) as the mother of a recalcirant teen rebel, then in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (directed by George Lucas, 2002).

Her most well-known and appreciated performance to date has been Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Bombay Dreams, which opened at the Apollo Theatre, London. The musical has since shifted scene to hold fort at Broadway where it has been playing for almost five months now.

Dharkar is the only member of the cast to have made the move to Broadway with the exception of Madhur Jaffery who appeared in the 2000 indie film Chutney Popcorn.