Adah Sharma on The Kerala Story, Backlash, Threats & Handling Rejection | Shekhar Natarajan | Tomorrow Today

Adah Sharma (0:00)

So, I learned acting at quite a young age because I used to do it in real life.

Shekhar Natarajan (0:08)

It's AI with a conscience. And the second one is building a community of what a good human looks like.

Adah Sharma (0:20)

So, Kerala Story, I think, enters the room before I enter the room now. And you can't not know what it is.

Shekhar Natarajan (0:33)

Every company wanted to compete with Amazon. You cannot be like, the David Goliath story only works in stories.

Adah Sharma (0:45)

I think AI is like fire, and it can either like burn the whole forest down, or it can be used to cook food.

Shekhar Natarajan (1:18)

Welcome to yet another episode of Tomorrow Today with Shekhar Natarajan. Today, it's my incredible pleasure to welcome Adah Sharma.

She is not only a celebrity, but a great human being. And a very intriguing person, by the way. Like, you know, I've been researching about her. During the course of the conversation, you're going to know why.

Adah Sharma (1:39)

Oh my! Is the pressure on?

Shekhar Natarajan (1:43)

But a wonderful human being. And I'm also, you know, she also has a sister here, by the way, like if you haven't seen the sister, a sister does exist, a mother does exist.

For all of you to know. Adah, welcome to the show.

Adah Sharma (1:59)

Thank you so much. Thank you for telling people that I have a family that exists.

You don't like being in front of the camera. Even my mom is not. And then there was some speculation about her existing or not. And people are like, maybe she doesn't exist. No, I have, I have.

Shekhar Natarajan (2:13)

You've got a family.

Adah Sharma (2:15)

Yeah, a few of them do exist. Good.

Shekhar Natarajan (2:19)

So let's actually go back to the origin days of your family, right? Like, you know, it's a very interesting background that you have. I was reading about your father, mother, and the makeup of a family and other things. Wanted to understand a little bit about them.

Because most of the times, you know, the apple never falls far from the tree. And like some of the values and virtues that you actually possess come through their encoding. Right?

So, want to understand who you are as a person, the formative days, where did you live, what happened to you?

Adah Sharma (2:51)

Oh my, this feels like a therapy session. Podcasts actually feel like a therapy session.

Shekhar Natarajan (2:57)

No, seriously, I had like...

Adah Sharma (2:59)

Not in a bad way, in a good way only. Podcasts nowadays are the new therapy session that you put out for everyone to watch.

Shekhar Natarajan (3:08)

No, no, but I think this is unlike any other podcast. So I'll give you the reason why we do this podcast. So in 2020, my son was born. And my son looks exactly like my father.

And so I'm a late bloomer. And the son was born. And when I held him, the only thing I could feel was my father's soul in my son.

And my father used to deliver telegrams in Hyderabad.

And basically my mother was not as educated. She used to work for Tekken Chronicle. Like when she started, she used to wrap newspapers to be delivered next day morning. That's where we started. And I lived in slums in India, the second biggest one. And so, but all the good karma they had done in their life, despite being very poor and being very challenged, came as a blessing to me. And my thinking was, can I capture the essence and the soul of my parents and everyone who helped me, which are numerous of those people in my life. And if I could like put them in technology and amplify goodness, that would be the greatest gift I would give for my son. And so, I started that journey. And as part of the journey, you know, we are building a capability and the capability is like broken into two halves. AI with a conscience. And the second one is, building a community of what a good human looks like. And so, bringing interesting people, understanding what makes them up, who they are. Because all we see is the glamour and the gritter and everything that is very external. But we don't understand how they evolve as people.

So, that's essentially what we try to capture as part of the show.

Adah Sharma (4:59)

How lovely. Since it's divided into two parts, I think I'll be put into the AI part. A lot of people think I'm AI also.

So, I think the AI with the conscience is a nice thing. I like it. At least it's just AI. A lot of my videos, people see and they say AI. Some dance videos we put recently and I had really worked hard and people were like, AI hai. You can't tell now. So, if you look like you've done a little hard work, sometimes it gets passed off as AI. But I like this AI with the conscience is so nice. And scary also. But it is nice.