For an entire generation that remembers the haunting romance in Raaz (2002) and the infectious charm of Bombay Vikings' Kya Soorat Hai, Malini Sharma is an ever-familiar figure of an era that feels increasingly far. Her screen presence was hard to miss; her rise to fame was brief. After her departure from acting, the former model carved out a niche career in a different field and quietly vanished from the notice of the general public. But more than two decades after Raaz, Sharma's been speaking up about a slice of life very few know anything about: the years that she lived her life away from the world of film.
Malini Sharma cut her teeth in the film industry as a model, and later starred in music videos before finding substantial fame through her work in the cult supernatural romance Raaz. It was her role as the winsome Simran, alongside Dino Morea and Bipasha Basu, that made her one of the most popular faces of the early 2000s. Sharma's performance in the film was enhanced by the music, the most remembered of which was Aapke Pyaar Mein. The song, along with her role in the film, made Sharma an iconic personality who would be remembered for her work in the film forever after.
But the length of her career in Bollywood wasn't any longer than the brief, shining period of fame. Rumours about her mysterious departure from the industry have often swirled around, but it appears that she simply didn't want to continue to do what she did before. Just two days before the shoot of another film was due to commence, Sharma walked away from the industry, making her exit as someone who had little desire to continue to remain in it. She went on to pursue a career in art direction, and spent the next two decades working outside the public eye.
Her time in art direction hasn't garnered the same sort of press as her work in films. The transition from an actress to an art director doesn't seem to have captured the public's fancy in any way, but it has given an unusual window into the way Sharma's life went after her brief stint in Bollywood. For someone whose work involves constant interaction with the public, working behind the scenes offered something of a respite. Art direction requires a keen eye for the space that a film exists in, including its impact on the narrative and its visual presentation. It's a markedly different skill from acting, but it offered Sharma an opportunity to continue to participate in the world of cinema-making without having to face the public's scrutiny.
Sharma's personal life also took a turn during this period. She married actor Priyanshu Chatterjee, but the couple later divorced. With the exception of some mentions of her career and relationships, Sharma hasn't really appeared publicly for the majority of the last two decades. Unlike many of her contemporary actresses, Sharma didn't continue to keep herself in the public eye or keep returning to the world of acting. Her life outside of her work in films became the stuff of speculation, but she didn't return to acting either. She appeared to have put her life on hold for the rest of the world, while she continued to live it in private.
But Sharma has found herself drawn back into what she knows the public will see. Through her The Slow Local Diaries series, which has been running on social media, she's begun speaking of her life in the Sahyadri hills, as she lives on a farm with her family. The lifestyle is a dramatic change from her years in Mumbai, and as she grows vegetables for her visitors to try, she makes her living through farming and the food that she prepares. Her life and environment form the subject of her latest work, which is as much about her years in the film industry as her life at present.
In what could be viewed as a fitting turn, Sharma's newest venture appears to be taking her life in a dramatically different direction. She's found herself returning to the world of the film industry that she left behind over two decades ago, but on her own terms. In the latest season of The Slow Local Diaries, she performed Aapke Pyaar Mein - one of the most remembered songs from Raaz - but this time around, it's been set against the backdrop of her home in the Sahyadri hills. With every passing day, Sharma finds herself coming to terms with who she was, and how her life went after the era of that particular part came to an end.
There's something surprisingly fitting about the way in which Malini Sharma has re-emerged in the public consciousness after such a long hiatus. In an industry where a return to the industry is measured by a new film, new projects, and fresh attempts at ensuring that one's presence in society is felt, Sharma's doing something very different. Perhaps because she never intended for her career to be a part of everyday life for people that far removed from where she now is. Her work in the film industry has been largely forgotten, but she's been using her presence in the online world to remind people of the other ways in which she's lived her life.
Sharma's long experience of life in the film industry has been a uniquely different one. While many spend their lives trying to become as big as possible, she's been doing the reverse for more than two decades now. What makes her story unique is the fact that the general public tends to remember people for how they were at a certain moment in time, and while that might inform the way in which they think about a person, it doesn't necessarily dictate the way in which they live. For Sharma, it means that while Raaz and Aapke Pyaar Mein will live on as parts of her legacy, so will the life that she continued to live afterwards.
Perhaps no one remembers her for her time as an actress, model, or even art director, but Malini Sharma lived her life in a way that she wanted to. After more than two decades of living it in private, she's returned to the public eye, but not as a faded star trying to recapture her lost fame, but rather as someone living life on her own. For audiences who remember Malini Sharma from Raaz, her legacy will always be tied to a film that defined a moment in Bollywood. But her life since then tells a different story, one that extends beyond the screen and the fame that came with it. Through The Slow Local Diaries, Sharma offers a glimpse into the years that followed, from her work in art direction to her life in the Sahyadri hills. Her return to a song that once made her familiar to millions is a reminder that while audiences may remember a person for a particular chapter, their story rarely ends there.
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