Aditi Rao Hydari tells the story of her first day and the first shot on the sets of Omung Kumar’s Bhoomi with Bollywood’s comeback superstar Sanjay Dutt. She plays his daughter in the revenge drama. Their first scene together, Aditi revealed, was a “sweet father-daughter moment” in which she is shown applying dye to Dutt’s hair. “I was sitting there quietly, with a halo around my head, nervous as hell and feeling butterflies in my stomach,” the gorgeous and talented actress admitted. “When Sanju Sir called me over and asked gently, ‘You’re nervous?’ I shakily said I was. He laughed and told me, ‘Arre, how can you be nervous! You have just done Mani Ratnam’s super-hit film Kaatru Veliyidai. Look at me – I’m coming to a film set for the first time in years!’”

That little interaction between the Bollywood veteran and the Hyderabadi actress with only under a dozen Hindi films to her credit not just broke the ice between Dutt and Aditi, but it helped to cement their relationship as father-daughter in Bhoomi. “He then gave me a big hug – and I suddenly felt everything was fine,” Aditi continued, “and when he placed one large hand on my head, it was the best feeling in the world. I lost my father to cancer four years ago, and though we had a strained relationship, I miss him. So to have Sanju Sir now play my screen father was huge. I know his daughter Trishala is just two years younger than me and so his behaviour towards me was effortless. He was so warm, he made me feel so welcome and special, that it was easy and natural to do the father-daughter scenes with him. We didn’t need any rehearsals. It was all impromptu. He is a great actor, one glance at the dialogues and he had memorized his lines, he improvised as we went along, and I just reacted to whatever Sanju Sir did.”

While this spontaneous method of acting went well before the camera and excited director Omung Kumar no end, Aditi said the person who was most jealous of her proximity to the great Sanjay Dutt was her mother. “She is a big fan of his,” the actress said, “and while she is not a fan of Bollywood, she sees only Sanju Sir’s films and Amitji’s. Mom could not get over the fact that I was doing Bhoomi with him.” Aditi herself is a Sanjay Dutt fan. But had the actor seen any of the handful of Hindi films she made before agreeing to work alongside her in his comeback to the big screen? “I don’t think so,” Aditi replied doubtfully. “I’ve been working in Bollywood for six years only. I hardly expected him to know me much less know my work. But from the day we met, our relationship took off like a snap of the fingers! He makes light of the most intense scenes. I would be crying with the emotion of the rape victim and Sanju Sir would make me laugh!”

Now that the countdown to Bhoomi’s Friday release has begun, Aditi expressed disappointment at the Central Board of Film Certification’s (CBFC) decision to delete the crucial rape scene along with 13 other violent moments from the film. The actress recorded her feelings sharply by telling the media: “Films are a reflection of what happens in society. The fact is we are showing a tamed version of reality, and censorship makes us tame it down further, but I don’t understand why that happens because children today are watching all kinds of things and they know more than everybody. So I don’t know what you’re trying to hide from whom because this is a fact and that’s reality. We are trying to say this doesn’t happen. Sometimes when we show you things in films it is to understand how demonic people are and how girls are treated. And I feel bad that things like these are censored because things that should be censored are not censored and things that shouldn’t be censored are!” Her disappointment is understandable because Aditi reportedly gave a gut-wrenching performance in the rape scene. She described it as “torturous and humiliating”. And she found it hard to disconnect from there. “Usually I can switch on and off from a scene and I function like that instinctively. But it took some time for me to get my breath back in Bhoomi. Filming that scene made me think about real instances of rape. It was tough and dark. Even though I am a positive person, it was difficult for me to do those scenes,” she admitted.

But why is that Bhoomi, who is so empowered, needs her father — a male — to fight her battles?

Once or twice, I was about to tell my director that I hope the girl is not going to take the regular route of waiting for her father to do something. But I wanted to do this film because a woman faces violation — in varying degrees — on an everyday basis. Here’s the thing, a girl can get out and do exactly what she wants when faced with a difficulty. But when you have your sister, your brother or somebody that you call your own, then your strength is multiplied hundred fold. Here in Bhoomi, she’s strong and she’s charting her own path. But her family standing by her during her most difficult phase in her life is a beautiful thing. She’s not some weakling. Several people have told me that you have played fragile characters in the past, and this is the first time you are playing a strong character. My response? Sorry, that’s in your gaze. All my characters have been strong. Just because I have a knife in my hand and I am shouting, that doesn’t make me strong. What makes me strong is the strength from within. Why do you think that a father standing by his daughter is not a sign of strength? In my opinion, it shows her strength and his strength. But when you see the film, you will realise that the girl empowers her father and that’s beautiful.