Page 290 - FINAL_Guildhall Media Highlights 2019-2020 Coverage Book

heritage is visiting India for the first time. And, it is only over the course of

our conversation, bookended by her career and her longing to trace

her Indian roots, that her spirit truly emerges.

In her television career, so far, Chalotra has appeared in measured

glimpses. In Netflix’s Wanderlust (staring Toni Collette), she plays the part

of a bookish aloof, who later blooms into a layered character. In BBC’s

adaptation of Agatha Christie’s The ABC Murders (starring John

Malkovich), she craftily adopts the role of Lily Marbury. But even in these

laconic screen presences, Chalotra’s range as an actor is evident. Trained at

the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and the Guildhall School

of Music and Drama, she has performed in three professional plays. In fact,

she enthralled audiences in a Theatre Royal Stratford East production

called The Village, which led publications like The Guardian to sit up and

take notice.

The Witcher will allow Chalotra to really shine, pitching her right at the

centre of an ethereal universe as the enigmatic, raven-haired sorceress,

commanding undeniable attention. If all goes well, this role could

potentially transform her, in an eye blink, from a television what’s-her-

name to a Google phenomenon.

The day we meet, Chalotra makes a frank admission. “I haven’t read all

of The Witcher novels.” She’s a slow reader, she reveals. “And that’s only

because I am very thorough. I read every detail and often have to go back to

the page before and read it again, and I ask questions as I go along, since I

am that character.”

She has read the short stories from The Last Wish though, considered to be

the first book in the series, which is the content of the first season.