Tara Sutaria

Tara Sutaria (born 19 November 1995) is an Indian actress, singer and dancer who works in Hindi films and televsion. She started her television career as a child artist in 2010 with Disney India’s Big Bada Boom and went on to star in the channel’s sitcoms The Suite Life of Karan & Kabir (2012) and Oye Jassie (2013). In 2019, Sutaria ventured into films by playing a college student in the teen drama Student of the Year 2, for which she won Zee Cine Award for Best Female Debut and was nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut. Also in 2019, she played a mute girl in the action film Marjaavaan.

Early life

Tara Sutaria was born on 19 November 1995 to a Zoroastrian Parsi family. She has a twin sister named Pia. Both trained in classical ballet, modern dance and Latin American dances at the School of Classical Ballet and Western Dance, Royal Academy of Dance, United Kingdom and the Imperial Society for Teachers of Dancing, United Kingdom. She has been a professional singer since she was seven years old, having sung in operas and competitions since then. She received a bachelor’s degree in Mass Media from St. Andrew’s College of Arts, Science and Commerce.

Career

Sutaria started her association with Disney Channel India as a video jockey and continued to be associated with them, having two successful sitcoms to her credit. She has also been recording music in India and abroad for films, advertisements, and her own original work. Her song “Slippin’ Through My Fingers” is part of the Ashwin Gidwani Production of Bharat Dhabholkar’s Blame It On Yashraj. She has also played the lead role of Sandy in Raell Padamsee’s production of the musical Grease. She has recorded and performed solo concerts in London, Tokyo, Lavasa and Mumbai. She has performed with Louiz Banks, Mikey McCleary and has also been a soloist for the Stop-Gaps Choral Ensemble, singing at the NCPA for over a decade. She was one of the top seven finalists of the 2008 “Pogo Amazing Kids Awards” in the singer category. She received recognition for her roles of Vinnie in The Suite Life of Karan & Kabir and Jassie in Oye Jassie.

Sutaria was among two actresses selected for the part of Princess Jasmine in the American fantasy film Aladdin (2019), but lost the role to Naomi Scott. She made her film debut later that year with Punit Malhotra’s coming-of-age teen film Student of the Year 2 alongside Tiger Shroff and Ananya Panday. Produced by Karan Johar, it served as a standalone sequel to Student of the Year (2012) and narrates the story of a college student (portrayed by Shroff) who competes to win an annual school championship. Reviewing the film for The Indian Express, Shubhra Gupta wrote, “Tara Sutaria is perfectly put together and yet looks assembly-line produced”. She received a nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut. The film underperformed at the box office.

Later in 2019, Sutaria played the role of Zoya, a mute music teacher, alongside Sidharth Malhotra, Riteish Deshmukh and Rakul Preet Singh, in Milap Zaveri’s action film Marjaavaan. In preparation, she learnt sign language. In a scathing review for The Hindu, Namrata Joshi found the film to be “loud, overcooked and overdone” and wrote that Sutaria was reduced to “smiling and weeping alternately”.

Sutaria and debutante Ahan Shetty have completed work on Milan Luthria’s romantic thriller Tadap, the remake of Telugu film RX 100 (2018), scheduled for theatrical release in September 2021. In her second release for 2021, she will reunite with Shroff in Ahmed Khan’s actioner Heropanti 2 which will release in December 2021. In 2022, she will feature opposite Arjun Kapoor in Mohit Suri’s psychological suspense film Ek Villain Returns which also stars John Abraham and Disha Patani.

Filmography

Films

Denotes films that have not yet been released

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2019	Student of the Year 2	Mridula “Mia” Chawla	Zee Cine Award for Best Female Debut Nominated-Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut
	Marjaavaan	Zoya
2021	Tadap	Mishka	Post production
	Heropanti 2	TBA	Filming
2022	Ek Villain Returns	TBA	Filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2010	Big Bada Boom	Herself
2011	Entertainment Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega	Herself
2012	Best of Luck Nikki	Nina/Tina	Cameo
2012	The Suite Life of Karan & Kabir	Vinita “Vinnie” Mishra
2013	Oye Jassie	Jaspreet “Jassie” Singh
2013	Shake It Up	Herself	Cameo

Music video

Year	Title	Ref
2020	“Masakali 2.0”