You suddenly swerved into stardom with Animal. How did you handle the overnight rise in your fame?Honestly, it was overwhelming in the beginning because my life before that was very quiet and solely work-oriented. I’ve never been someone who was conditioned for instant attention or celebrity culture. After Animal, there was suddenly so much conversation around me that I had to consciously separate perception from reality.I think the only way I could stay grounded was by continuing to focus on the work itself, because fame can be very unstable if you emotionally depend on it. It also helps when you don’t belong to this world. Your family has a way of grounding you with real conversations about everything except the movies.Animal gave you the freedom to pick and choose. How liberating is your post-Animal career?Very liberating. Before Animal, I was constantly trying to find films that would show my range. After the film, there was definitely more access, more conversations and more trust from the industry. But for me, the biggest freedom is not success; it’s the choice at my disposal today. I can now wait for material that genuinely excites me instead of saying yes out of fear or survival. That changes your relationship with your career completely.Besides Madhuri Dixit, what clinched it for you in Maa Behen?It has some audacious writing, and I had honestly never read something in Hindi that balanced so many genres so seamlessly. There is humour, dysfunctional family dynamics, female power and messy situations, all woven together in a unique way.These women are not trying to be ideal or likeable all the time. They’re simply trying to survive a situation that keeps getting worse. I found that very human and very refreshing. It also shatters the accepted idea of what a woman is, or rather what she should be.Also, director Suresh Triveni sir creates very detailed worlds, and that really attracted me as an actor.You poured your entire soul into Vishal Bhardwaj’s O Romeo. What did its failure teach you?I don’t see it as a failure at all. Commercial failure is one sort of failure, and of course you hope that your film works with people and finds love. But personally, the film taught me so much. I got the opportunity to work with a maverick like Vishal Bhardwaj. I worked with Shahid Kapoor, who is such a sharp actor. Of course, I think every actor secretly hopes that if you give everything emotionally to a role, the audience will automatically connect with it. But cinema doesn’t always work that way. Sometimes timing matters, sometimes expectations matter and sometimes a film finds its audience later.What O Romeo taught me is that you cannot attach your self-worth to the result of a project. You have to learn how to commit deeply and then let go.How do you handle persistent fans?The fact that I have fans is surreal to me to this day, and I try to handle it with the kindness I would expect when meeting my own heroes. I understand that they are coming from a place of affection.Maa Behen gives you an opportunity to face the camera with Madhuri Dixit. Was that a fan-crush experience for you?I think every girl who grew up in the 1990s watching Hindi cinema has, at some point, been mesmerised by Madhuri ma’am. There is such grace in her performances. Even today, for most Bollywood leading ladies, Madhuri ma’am remains a benchmark. Her star power is aspirational, and so is her craft. What surprised me while working with her, though, was how present and generous she is as a co-actor. When you meet her as an actor, she has this magic and aura about her. Her work ethic is top-notch; she is sincere and kind.She never walks onto a set carrying the weight of being “Madhuri Dixit”. She is very playful in the way she approaches scenes. So the fan moment existed for maybe the first two days, and then it became this amazing creative collaboration that I will cherish forever.