Ask Alia Bhatt what is the best thing she learnt about acting in these years and she responds that there’s no one way to do it; there’s no fixed way to do it.

“I’ve learned that everything that I’ve learned, I kind of need to unlearn,” she explains. “Because there can be a process for you to get ready in your vanity van etc but that’s just your personal process. On set, you can’t have a personal process because the character you are playing is not you. Every time I get too comfortable I try and make myself a little uncomfortable.”

There have been times when this pocket-sized powerhouse actress has actually had to convince a filmmaker to take her on. It happened with her upcoming Kalank. “For Kalank, I knew I was in Abhishek’s mind but there were a lot of things he needed to think about before putting the cast together. So for the first time, I called him up and I called Karan up and I said, ‘Listen, I just want you to know that I will be really upset if you don’t take me in this film’.

Risk-taking drives her though she is cautious doing it as well. “I would not say risk-taking in an extreme sense but there is some middle ground that you have to find when choosing your films where you are not going too off but you have to go a little left and a little right sometimes rather than going the straight path. And by that, I mean not doing the same kind of characters and the same kind of films. Risks are also a good way of learning and understanding what works at that time in the market for the people, what kind of films they want to watch.”

She loves the feeling of doubting herself, as to whether she can pull off the role. She believes it is the reason why she constantly stretches herself to do “these intense, difficult characters which make me question the existence of life, haha!”

With back to back film schedules, all she hopes for is her 8 hours of sleep and that she keeps her patience together. “What’s happens in times like this when you’re doing too much, is you start feeling a little entitled with time, effort, attention etc. So that’s something I need to be mindful of that I can’t suddenly become like this queen, who needs everyone at her disposal.”

Yet more reason why we adore her!