When Amita Suman flips her cascade of dark locks in front of her shoulder during our Zoom interview, I momentarily lose track of my question. Her screen is tilted low, and her mane unfurls like a scroll beyond her Zoom tile. “I thought you wore a wig while playing Inej,” I grumble, my own hair slick with oil that probably won’t do anything for my shoulder-length bob. “It’s real,” she grins, swishing her tresses this way and that. “I wanted to change it up before I auditioned for Inej. Some inner voice told me I shouldn’t cut it, and I’m so glad I listened.”
Cascading locks aren’t the only feature Suman shares with Inej Ghafa, the deadly but moralistic spy she plays in the fantasy series ‘Shadow and Bone’ (2021-2023). Growing up in Bhedihari, a village in Nepal where the locals lived in tin houses, the only electrical device Suman was familiar with was a light bulb. One day, a small black-and-white television appeared in her house, and her child’s brain couldn’t comprehend that the people in front of her eyes weren’t miniatures living inside the TV. “It made me realize that’s where I wanted to be because it felt like freedom was in that little box.”
When Suman was seven and her family moved to Brighton, England, she understood that her route to television was acting. Drama school and a couple of fantasy projects later, she found herself on the set of ‘Shadow and Bone’ in Inej’s breeches and hooded tunic. “That’s when the similarities struck,” Suman explains. “Inej was taken from her home to a new place where she learned to thrive. I also moved to the UK from Nepal and had to adapt in a very different way.”
For the 26-year-old, it was her deep connection to the character that truly elevated her performance. “Moving countries without knowing how to read, write, or speak the language requires having faith in yourself. Inej helped me acknowledge that I did.”
Apart from ‘Shadow and Bone,’ Suman’s career highlights include starring in a ‘Doctor Who’ episode titled ‘Demons of the Punjab’ (2018), 14 episodes of ‘The Outpost’ (2018-2021), and an episode of ‘Locke & Key’ titled ‘Dream of a Thousand Cats/Calliope’ (2022). If the fact that these are all fantasy fiction shows seems like too much of a coincidence, the actor chalks it up to divine intervention. “I have a powerful relationship with God and manifestation,” she solemnly intones. “In the early stages of my career, I was told that people don’t get to do fantasy or fiction. But that was what I wanted most at the time.” The television set from her childhood loomed large in front of her eyes, demanding that she leave her circumscribed life behind. “When I bagged Inej, that alternative world suddenly opened up to me. It was like my imagination came to life. That’s why I love fantasy so much.”
Inej’s backstory as a Suli who was kidnapped from her home by human traffickers and sold to a brothel could’ve provided the foundation for her to be unwaveringly emotionless, ruthless, and vengeful. As Suman puts it, “a sexy character out to get blood”, like Black Widow in the first few ‘Avengers’ movies or Letty for most of the ‘Fast and Furious’ franchise. “Inej had no choice but to become dangerous to safeguard herself against her past, but she doesn’t lose herself to the darkness like many other characters in the ‘Grishaverse’ do,” the actor points out. Instead, she continues to remain steadfast in her beliefs, names her 14 knives after the Saints, and warms up to Kaz Brekker, a character who comes with his own traumas.
It was the burning question of will-they-won’t-they that ‘Shadow and Bone’ season three and the spin-off based on the ‘Six of Crows’ duology might have answered until Netflix axed the show. Fans were not amused and began petitioning to revoke the decision. “’Shadow and Bone’ received the most number of signatures out of any show that has ever been canceled. Fans put up billboards outside Netflix’s head office in protest,” Suman says, her eyes shining with gratitude. She’s not too worried, though. “For some weird reason, I don’t think it’s the end. The realistic part of me says it is, but the idealistic part of me will never lose hope.”
