Who's Shreya Chaudhry? The Actress Behind Bandish Bandit's Tamanna Sharma

Independent, liberated and self-assured, Bandish Bandit’s lead character Tamanna Sharma is a force to be reckoned with. She is loud, adventurous and ambitious. She is also a music sensation and a pop-singer. And enacting the character is the actress Shreya Chaudhry, who plays her to perfection. Shreya Chaudhry is one of the newer faces in the industry that the regular ">OTT-platform viewers have not seen before. Amazon Prime’s Bandish Bandits marks her debut in television series, although the actress has previously worked with Imtiaz Ali and Manisha Koirala.

Previous Stints

Shreya Chaudhry graduated in advertising, but soon found acting to be her first love. She became a known face after her stints in many popular commercials. Chaudhry has worked with many famous brands like Lakme India, Sunsilk, Fabindia, Reliance Jewels, Cadbury India, among others. She was also featured as a model on the front page of the women’s fashion magazine Gladrags in 2018. She has previously worked as a model for the new slow-fashion brand The Little Black Bow.

Before Bandish Bandits, Chaudhry made her debut in Bollywood with the 2017 film Dear Maya. Directed by Sunaina Bhatnagar, the film starred Chaudhry alongside Manisha Koirala and Pakistani actress Madiha Imam. The plot of the movie revolved around two friends, Koirala’s Anna and Chaudhry’s Ira, and tried to capture the different shades of young female friendships.

Who's Shreya Chaudhry? The Actress Behind Bandish Bandit's Tamanna Sharma

Chaudhry was also cast by the casting-turned-film-director Mukhesh Chhabra to work in the Imtiaz Ali short film The Other Way. The short film was released on YouTube in 2018, and has since reached a viewership of more than 2.5 million. In the short film, Chaudhry played the role of the headstrong runaway-bride, who heavily reminds one of Geet from Imtiaz Ali’s Jab We Met. Here she starred alongside the Thappad (2020) fame Pavail Gulati.

Also Read: Thappad Challenges Our Gaze Towards Indian Marriages

What Else We Know About This Newbie

Chaudhry’s social media profiles show that she is a trained boxer. In an interview with Vogue India, she clarifies that she is nothing like the character she plays in Bandish Bandits, “We are very different. We’ve been brought up differently and have different professions too… As Shreya, I am more paranoid, but Tamanna is someone who lives in the moment. Her energy is infectious. I eventually started learning from her.”

In the same interview, Chaudhry also showed interest in working in other genres, “I’m hoping to work in different genres. I had actually never thought that I would get to do a musical so early on in my career. There are a lot of other genres that I would love to be a part of, like a thriller, action and so on.”

Also Read: The Actress Behind Gulabo Sitabo’s Fatto Begum: Looking At Farrukh Jaffar’s Memorable Roles

The Role With Bandish Bandits

This series has received critical acclaim and been widely appreciated for its different theme and focus on music.

Many went to the extent of saying music was the star of the program. Looking back at how she bagged this, Shreya says, "My happiness had no bounds. I knew about the magnitude of the series and was happy that I got the call."

"My parents too, soon realised that I must be doing something right to have got the project and allowed me to fulfill my dream," she said in a conversation with Deccan Herald.

Dyuti Gupta is an intern with SheThePeople.TV.