May 11, 2026 10:34am IST
Mira Nair Finds Her Amrita Sher-Gil: Anjali Sivaraman Takes the Lead in ‘Amri’ (EXCLUSIVE)
After a grueling global casting process that saw some of Bollywood's brightest stars vying for the role, Mira Nair has officially cast Anjali Sivaraman to portray the legendary painter Amrita Sher-Gil in the upcoming biopic, “Amri”.
Mira Nair describes Sher-Gil as a woman who lived entirely on her own terms, often comparing her impact to that of Frida Kahlo. And casting her part was no small feat. Mira Nair, alongside renowned casting director Dilip Shankar, reportedly auditioned over 100 actresses. The search spanned from Mumbai to London and New York, testing both established icons and fresh faces. While heavyweights like Triptii Dimri, Janhvi Kapoor, Ananya Panday, Wamiqa Gabbi, and Tanya Maniktala were all in contention, Nair ultimately pivoted toward Sivaraman’s raw intensity and striking resemblance to the painter.
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Anjali is best known for her recent work in the Netflix series Class and the film Cobalt Blue, and her selection marks a major turning point in her career.
The film features a powerful ensemble cast that brings the history of Amrita Sher-Gil to life. Anjali Sivaraman stars in the lead role as the legendary painter herself, while two-time Oscar nominee Emily Watson portrays her mother, Marie-Antoinette Gottesman, and Jaideep Ahlawat plays her father, Umrao Singh Sher-Gil. The cast also includes Krisztián Csákvári as Victor Egan, Anjana Vasan as Indira Sher-Gil, and Jim Sarbh as the art critic Karl Khandalavala. Furthermore, global star Priyanka Chopra-Jonas joins the production in the role of Madame Azurie and also serves as an Executive Producer on the project. The film is being produced by Samudrika Arora, Micheal Nozik and Mira Nair.
Talking about Amri, Mira Nair shared, “Every film I’ve made in the last several decades has been inspired by the art of Amrita Sher-Gil. She taught me how to see. She absorbed the best European training to distill the soul of India in a way that no one ever had — it is this distillation that has informed my own cinema from the beginning. The bravery of her palette, color and framing of the ordinary people of India has eternally moved me.”
The story follows the fascinating life of Sher-Gil between 1915 and 1941, and will focus on her journey from studying art in Paris to her revolutionary work in India, where she captured the lives of women and the poor. As the daughter of a Punjabi Sikh father and a Hungarian mother, she became a radical modernist who redefined Indian art by painting everyday people with incredible depth.
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