Stargazer: Tabu, Amrita Bagchi and Ruhi Pal

Tabu’s Tough Act

She lights a cigarette as she steps out of her SUV, slaps a brawler who questions her arrival in the slum, and utters a few expletives. As the antagonist Gauri Hegde, Deputy Commissioner, Income Tax, in Puri Jagannadh’s Slumdog 33 Temple Road, Tabu is all systems go. She has to be. Starring with her in the film is Vijay Sethupathi.

One to Watch

She plays Alka Ahuja in the Netflix series Operation Safed Sagar, the patient and lov­ing wife of Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja. But Amrita Bagchi is more than a fine actor. A graduate of the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, she has a music band, designs film posters (most recently for the exquisite Shadowbox) and has also directed a short film, Succulent. Before Operation Safed Sagar, she has appeared in City of Dreams, Music Teacher, and Hasmukh, and has played lead roles in Shoebox (2021) and Roojh (2023).

Rising Ruhi

A Mosquito in Her Ear stars Nazanin Boniadi and Jake Lacy but little Ruhi Pal is the film’s real star. Based on Andrea Ferraris’ autobio­graphical graphic novel, about him and his wife adopting from India, the film directed by Nicola Rinciari follows an American couple on the jour­ney to adopting Sarvari (Ruhi). For the child artist from Mumbai, it is quite a flight.