Emerging Internet sensation Mallika Dua is the 'every girl' -- the one who shops at Sarojini and the one no one hits on
Mallika Dua in the play, Birdie Num Num
In her first video, which released this January, actress Mallika Dua portrays the different girls you are likely to meet at Sarojini Nagar. So there is the 'Diva' who pops allegra and asks 'Ghanshyam Bhaiyya' if he’s got her Balmain jacket; and 'the newlywed simpleton from West Delhi' who pronounces lingerie as longerie; and the 'habitual hater from Bombay’ who thinks Delhi is horrible as there are ‘trees all over’. "Usually, these videos always show one stereotype of the Delhi girl — the one from GK! I thought, there are many, many stereotypes. Let’s show them all but in an endearing 'we-love-Delhi' way," says the 26-year-old.
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A still from her viral video, S*** Girls Say at Sarojini Nagar
In her second video for The Viral Fever, which released last month, she scares a boy with a pertinent question — "Why do hot girls have all the fun?" "I take a lot from my own life, maybe that’s why people relate to it. I have always felt like the fat friend of a hot girl," she laughs.
If you are Googling her right now, you won’t be disappointed.
Mallika Dua in the play, Birdie Num Num
Dua's comic timing has made her videos viral and her, a hit in the digital space. Daughter of veteran journalist Vinod Dua, she is the new online star. She owes it to her on-screen vibe and acting skills. Though she works full time as advertising copywriter, the graduation degree in theatre from Franklin & Marshall College in Delhi has helped her pursuer a passion on the side. "I realised I need a routine, that’s why the job. But the theatre background helped because drama demands that you use all your faculties."
The self-confessed drama queen sharpened her histrionics as member of the school’s debate team. "But I knew I couldn’t be the typical actress; I don’t look the part." Along with pursuing theatre in Delhi (her last play was called Karkhana and based on Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Katzelmache), she started off with Dubsmash videos on her Instagram account. These range from Paan Parag commercials to Amrish Puri dialogues, some of them even featuring senior Dua.
And then the Little Black Book in Delhi asked her to star in and write the script for the Sarojini Nagar video since she is shopaholic.
She does say she owes her sense of humour to her dad, who unlike his public persona, is a funny man. "We grew up treating everything in an irreverent way. It was all always a big joke," says Dua, who shares that she is considering a shift to Mumbai. "I saw some really tiny homes the last time I was there, so I will be back again to house hunt," she groans.
But lack of space is made up by the rush of recognition. "Sometimes, dad and I go to places together, and people recognise the both of us. Sometimes, it’s just me. I then look at him and go, ‘What a CHOP moment this is!’," she laughs. "It's a good life."
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