From Dubai theatre to off-Broadway star: Anuka's journey of breaking stereotypes like Priyanka Chopra

Dubai: From watching school productions at Dubai’s now-closed DUCTAC theatre in Mall of the Emirates to performing on one of New York’s most politically charged Off-Broadway stages, UAE kid Anuka Sethi has travelled a long, quietly radical road.

“I was a very shy kid who used to watch the plays that rolled into Ductac Theatre … I grew up being very afraid that I could never do that. But those plays that I saw in Dubai was really fun to experience because it made me realise that stories can move people and change people.”

Her turning point came when she was eight, she tells Gulf News over a zoom video call from New York City.

“One of my teachers forced me to be Mrs Claus in our Christmas concert. And I think that was a really big change for me in terms of my confidence.”

What began as a confidence exercise soon became a calling.

“As I grew and sought out more performance opportunities, I started to realise that this isn’t just something that I enjoy doing for fun! It’s something that I really think I can do with my life.”

By 15, she knew she didn't want to pursue a conventional career path.

“I decided that I wanted to be an actor, and I went full force. I was like, okay, what do I have to do to be successful? To me, success was going to one of the best acting programmes in the world at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts."

And Anuka, who studied at Jumeirah English Speaking School (Arabian Ranches), got in.

“I spent my full four years in college there. It was really amazing, especially because I was always a shy kid and I never thought that I stood a chance among those loud theatre kids. But I fit right in."

Anuka says her drama teachers at JESS Arabian Ranches shaped her belief system.

“My drama teachers were amazing because they really encouraged me. They saw that I was interested in it and continued to spark that interest.”

But there was no early stardom in school productions.

“Let me say this, I never got a main role in school ever. I honestly didn’t even think I was really that good. There were all these kids that had been doing drama since they were little that always got everything. I was very hesitant to think of this as a career.”

And being a South Asian didn't really help her case. Ask any Indian parent and they would tell you that they want their kids to opt for stable career paths like medicine, engineering, IT, or accounts.

"There’s not a lot of people like us who get to do this! But my parents were so supportive! They knew that I liked science and psychology, but I wasn't passionate about it."

Now based in New York City, Anuka works across theatre, film and television. She is currently performing in an adaptation of The Thousand and One Nights at the legendary La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, a space known for launching boundary-breaking artists.

“It’s an adaptation done by a Lebanese-American director and writer. The show has Arabic in it. It has Hindi, because I get to speak Hindi in it. It has Spanish. It has Farsi. All the actors get to speak our languages as well as English.”

The production sold out all eight performances.

“People who saw it last year still talk about the show to this day. And now every single one is sold out.”

For Anuka, this is the kind of work she always dreamed of.

“It celebrates diversity… it’s very political. It’s a call to action. It celebrates the resistance of indigenous peoples against colonialism. We are blessed that we are alive and that we have a gift of telling stories.”

Her journey from Dubai to New York feels strangely logical, she adds.

“Dubai and New York are so similar… they’re both cultural melting pots. I know what it’s like to be Indian, the person next to me is French, and the person over there is Arab. I know how we can share culture and share conversation, and how it makes us smarter and more well-rounded.”

While Dubai doesn’t yet have a Broadway-scale theatre ecosystem, she believes its strength lies elsewhere.

“We don’t have these big theatres… but what we do have is community theatre, and I think that’s sometimes more important.”

She is optimistic. “Kids from all over the world live in Dubai. Everyone’s sharing culture all the time. Community theatre in Dubai could really thrive.”

One of the hardest parts of her profession, she says, is being boxed into identity.

“People kind of want to push you into a box of what Indian or what South Asian is. I don’t like it. I don’t want to be part of things that force identity to become something you have to fight over all the time.”

In her eyes, trailblazers like Mindy Kaling and Priyanka Chopra Jonas, India's biggest cultural exports, have given her a lot of confidence.

“It is life-changing to see South Asian people on such big platforms. But I truly believe that Priyanka Chopra deserves better roles than what Hollywood writes for her."

Representation, she insists, must go beyond optics. “We need freedom to be everything.”

Anuka recently completed a short film titled The Beasts We Carry. “It’s about a girl who can see people’s inner selves manifested outside of them… and then 9/11 happens, and suddenly everybody’s inner self turns into a demon.”

She calls it what it is: “Another political commentary on racism against brown people. And it’s a horror film too.”

In a quiet victory, the role was rewritten for her.

“It was originally written to be a boy. But when I auditioned, the creative team liked me so much that they rewrote it to be a girl.”

Auditions are constant. “The more auditions you do, the more chance you have to succeed.”

Her parents, she says, were her backbone.

“My parents were very supportive and are always my number one fans. I went to them and said, ‘I want to do this crazy thing, and maybe I’ll be a flop for the rest of my life, but I’ll love what I do.’ And they said yes.”

For Indian parents struggling with unconventional choices, she offers simple advice.

“If this is what makes your kid happy, they need to do it. They have to do it.”

Today, Sethi works across theatre, film and television while serving as Artist in Residence at Live & In Color and developing new work with Clubbed Thumb. She remains fiercely connected to her roots.

“I just want Dubai kids to know: you can do it. The world is big. Whether you stay in Dubai and build the artistic scene there, or move to the US, or the UK, or Germany, art is special.”