Critics have compared you to Tabu and Suchitra Sen. Comment.
I don’t know how to react to such exalted praise. Tabu is a wonderful actor and Suchitraji is beautiful. A lot of people have told me I look Bengali. In fact, when Anurag met me, he remarked on my resemblance to Suchitra Sen. But when we started working together, he said I reminded him of Tabu. I’m fortunate to have met Tabu and though we don’t think we resemble each other, she was very supportive of me. Just being mentioned in the same bracket as Tabu and Suchitra Sen is an achievement.

What were you thinking during the ‘mattress in the fields’ scene?
I loved the idea of a girl taking a mattress to the field with the intention of making out with her boyfriend. It’s a first for the Indian screen. It’s for the first time that a woman’s sexuality has unfolded like this. Normally, when we show heroines enticing the hero, it’s almost always in a song. This was not seduction, this scene showed the sexual liberation of a girl. The response to the scene has been phenomenal. I was apprehensive about how my hometown, Chandigarh, would react. I was prepared for gaalis but we got a standing ovation. Even in towns like Ludhiana, women clapped and whistled at the scene.

Is it true Anurag let you do the Emosional Atyachar dance all by yourself?
Yes, he wanted me to do the same dance that I did at the birthday party where he saw me. Though I’ve trained in kathak, I’m not a good Bollywood dancer. But in this case, it was like ek baar chaabi de kar chhod do. I had lots of fun dancing to that song.

... contd.