Vidhatri Bandi

Graduating from UCLA’s TFT program back in 2016 wasn’t just a line on my resume – it was the start of a pretty wild ride. I dived into the Professional Program in Acting for Camera, grabbed a Career Development course while I was at it, then hopped into the basics of improv at The Groundlings. That place? Total game-changer. Before I even set foot in LA, I’d been hustling as an Assistant Director on some big Bollywood features, rubbing elbows with legendary directors and production houses—talk about a baptism by fire. Life in Los Angeles kept me on my toes. While studying acting, I worked as a Talent Manager over at Howard Talent West alongside Lynn Eriks. That job? Non-stop madness and a crash course in the business side of things. I even got my hands dirty assisting on a couple of SAG-funded pilots. Fast forward, my film Jalsa dropped on Amazon Prime—yup, global release, no big deal—where I played Rohini George, a primary caller, opposite absolute powerhouses Vidya Balan and Shefali Shah. This year’s already stacked. Max Min & Meowzaki, directed by Padmakumar Narasimhamurthy, is coming out soon—I’m Carol Sequera, one of the leads, sharing the screen with Adil Hussain, Nasser, and Siddharth Menon. Just wrapped another feature with Shivam Nair, starring alongside John Abraham (still pinching myself), which should drop any day now. Oh, and my short film Frore, directed by Madhur Mittal, snagged me the Dada Saheb Phalke Award for Best Actress (Jury). Not too shabby, right?