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Culture & Living
With a renewed outlook and a rekindled love for cinema, Sakshi Singh Dhoni reveals her plans in a freewheeling chat
As celebrated cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s other half, Sakshi Singh Dhoni has had a vantage point on being in the spotlight that few do. You might have often spotted her on stadium stands cheering for her husband and the former captain of the Indian cricket team. Or caught small snippets of her life—spending time with her daughter Ziva, playing with her pet dogs, lounging in her garden at their Ranchi farmhouse or catching up with friends—on her unassuming, unscripted Instagram account. She might maintain a low-profile most times, but you cannot write her off as a lady who lunches. As the managing director of Dhoni Entertainment, Sakshi has carved out her own road to success and signature style. Up ahead, she gives Vogue a peek into her life during lockdown and finding creative inspiration.
At home, Sakshi is the dedicated mum who has found the balance between her personal and professional life. “The lockdown has surely helped me strengthen my bond with my family and pets. My parenting style has evolved too,” she discloses. For most people, the aftereffects of this pause has meant dabbling in different activities—cooking up a storm in the kitchen, taking up a virtual class or even binge-watching shows and movies. For Sakshi, reconnecting with nature and reigniting her creative juices was her antidote. “I am generally an expressive person by nature, so I find it therapeutic to express my feelings through writing poems and paintings,” she shares. “They’ve become an extension of my personality and are hobbies that I enjoy thoroughly. Like everyone else, I have also got in touch with facets of myself that were dormant.”
Her love for nature is easy to pinpoint on her social media. There’s a picture of a dragonfly she rescued from the dogs, panoramic views of their colossal garden, a snapshot of a bulbul’s nest and even a video of a vibrant chameleon idling on her bicycle. This outdoorsy impetus combined with a relentless need to help those underprivileged during these extraordinary times led to the launch of Eeja Farms. “Eeja Farms was born because of the pandemic. A lot of people were left unemployed in the initial stages, which encouraged us to develop the land and support them in all our capacity,” Sakshi says about the thought-process behind the project. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who admitted to taking up organic farming of watermelon and papayas at their Ranchi farmhouse, was spotted driving a tractor and ploughing the field in a June 2020 fan video that went viral.
Sakshi Singh Dhoni’s style sensibility is exceedingly relatable. Nonchalant kurtas, feminine dresses and flowy maxis make the better part of her casual wear closet. “When it comes to deciding on colour palettes and prints, I am always inspired by nature. And I love wearing florals. At home, I am usually dressed in mulmul fabric and organic cottons,” she confesses. “If I were to edit my wardrobe, I would let go of a few pairs of leggings and denims. I usually prefer pieces that are not only versatile, but also timeless,” she explains. That’s not to say she doesn’t rely on statement-making ensembles every now and again. Pre-pandemic, Sakshi was often photographed in a scene-stealing lehenga and an elegant-yet-effortless sari there for weddings and other events.
The advocate of all things organic and natural “swears by age-old and DIY hacks that my mother follows. There’s no strict skincare regime I follow in particular. I always use face packs made from ingredients that are naturally grown and are easily available, depending on the season,” she reveals. According to Sakshi, some of the most effective skincare remedies lie in her kitchen pantry. A tried-and-true beauty recipe that she inherited from her mother? “A homemade pack, which is a mixture of glycerin and lime. My mother prepares this concoction especially for winters.”
Given Sakshi’s innate flair for poetry and drawing, launching Dhoni Entertainment, a Mumbai-based production house incepted to create engaging and dynamic content including films or web series, seemed like an obvious step for Sakshi. She shares, “For us at Dhoni Entertainment, it is important to see every project from an audience’s perspective. Would we, as consumers, want to watch the content we have in hand? We aim at providing a platform for talent to showcase their skills along with providing the audience fresh content that’s entertaining as well as gripping.”
She is drawn to distinct storylines and is currently working on the visual adaptation of debutante author Akshat Gupta’s mythological sci-fi trilogy novel The Hidden Hindu in the form of a web series. It is a one-of-a-kind tale of a mysterious Aghori, who after being tracked for over 200 years gets captured for interrogation by authorities on an isolated Indian island. He introduces himself as Om Shastri, a man in search of the seven immortals in Hindu texts. “Today, there are a lot more avenues to explore, and the consumers have an array of choices to pick from. Fortunately, the audience today has broader horizons in terms of the different types of genres they consume. It is about quality content, and that is always going to be our goal, to produce good stories from our hearts. We have a process of ensuring quality control right from the word go,” Sakshi reinstates. A typical work day in her life includes, “making sure, as the CMD, I take the final calls in tandem with our team's inputs and suggestions.”