Shahana Goswami

Shahana Goswami grew up in New Delhi, with a dad who crunches numbers for a living and a mom who’s deep in the world of editing. Her brother and his wife? Both physicists. No pressure, right? She went to Sardar Patel Vidyalaya in Delhi—total overachiever, by the way. House captain, sports champ, even ranked second in a national wall climbing competition. She basically tried every sport—badminton, basketball, volleyball, you name it. Oh, and she trained in Odissi dance for a whole decade under Kiran Segal, which is wild dedication. Acting wasn’t just a side hustle for her. It was always the goal. She packed up and shifted to Mumbai for college but really, it was all about breaking into acting. She started backstage with Jaimini Pathak’s Working Title group—production assistant at first, then straight onto the stage in plays like Seagull and Arabian Nights. Her break came kind of sideways—met a talent consultant through theater friends, got asked to audition for Naseeruddin Shah’s Yun Hota Toh Kya Hota. Then, while just hanging out at a production house, she landed a small role as Boman Irani’s daughter in Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd. A cinematographer liked her work and that led to her auditioning for Ru Ba Ru with Randeep Hooda, which she shot in Bangkok while still in college. Her big moment? Rock On. Friends suggested her to director Abhishek Kapoor, she auditioned, nailed it, and the Debbie role got her major awards—including the Filmfare Critics’ Best Actress, a first for a supporting role. She popped up in Dido’s music video as a Mumbai taxi driver and did a Fevicol ad set in rural Rajasthan. Her international debut came with Deepa Mehta’s Winds of Change, based on Midnight’s Children.