Watch: Anushka Sharma Returns To Screen With New Ad, Fans Say She Looks “Unrecognisable”
Anushka Sharma made a surprise comeback through a new jewellery brand advertisement, sparking both excitement and discussions about her appearance.
It’s been a long wait for Bollywood fans, but the on-screen drought is finally over. After stepping away from the silver screen for almost a decade – specifically, eight long years without a starring film role – beloved actress Anushka Sharma has officially made her comeback. The star, who continues to command an incredibly loyal fan following despite her acting hiatus, surprised the internet by appearing in a brand new advertisement released this Tuesday.
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The highly anticipated return happened via a new commercial for the jewellery brand Heera by GIVA. Interestingly, while the ad initially didn't generate massive traffic upon its YouTube drop, it didn't take long for the internet to do its thing. The video was quickly picked up and heavily circulated across platforms like Reddit and Instagram, where devoted fans immediately began flooding the comments to praise her return.
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Many expressed pure joy, with one user noting, “Damn, seeing [her] on screen after a really long time,” and another adding, “Setting aside her recent obsession with that demigod-like figure, she's a gorgeous woman living what seems like a fairytale life.”
However, alongside the warm welcome, a secondary narrative quickly took over the comments section: a wave of scrutiny regarding the actor's appearance. A vocal group of netizens felt that Anushka looked drastically different from her usual self. "She looks unrecognisable here," observed one commenter, while another echoed the sentiment, stating, "Something is off about her face, not sure what."
The debate quickly escalated into theories about potential cosmetic alterations, with one fan remarking, "Is this edited or work done on the face? Either way, it's not looking natural. Also, lately there's something about her that doesn't sit right, I don't know what."
Anushka's loyal supporters were quick to fire back, vehemently defending the actress against the unsubstantiated plastic surgery claims. Many pointed out that any differences in her appearance could simply be attributed to the natural aging process or heavy post-production editing on the video itself. "We have seen her in stadiums too," one defender argued. "This is age-related, and some of it is here in the video due to editing."
Indeed, while she may have been missing from film sets, Anushka remains a highly visible public figure, regularly spotted in the stands during Indian cricket team T20 matches and Royal Challengers Bangalore IPL games to support her husband, Virat Kohli.
Perhaps the most poignant defense came from a social media user who called out the hypocrisy of the internet's beauty standards, specifically highlighting the realities of postpartum bodies. "People here commenting about her face, you are the same people who scream about plastic surgeries gone wrong on actresses," the user wrote. "As a mother of 2, she looks great. I mean, as a mother of 1, I can say it's so hard to get back in shape. Your metabolism is gone to dogs, and it takes ages to feel mentally normal, leave alone physically. Give some grace to women out there." The user added that they weren't even a "big Anushka fan" (citing what they viewed as her "holier-than-thou attitude"), but felt compelled to speak up for women in general.
To put this screen absence into perspective, one must remember Anushka's meteoric rise. Starting her career as a teenager opposite superstar Shah Rukh Khan in the 2008 hit ‘Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi’, she spent the next ten years churning out massive blockbusters like ‘Band Baaja Baraat’, ‘PK’, ‘Dil Dhadakne Do’, and ‘Sanju’, firmly establishing herself as one of Bollywood's leading female stars.
Her last full-fledged theatrical release was 2018's ‘Zero’. Since then, audiences have only caught a glimpse of her in a cameo for her home production, ‘Qala’. Although she wrapped filming on the Jhulan Goswami biopic ‘Chakda Xpress’ back in 2022, there is still no official release date. Until then, this new ad serves as a bittersweet reminder of her undeniable screen presence.
