- The hardest and the most important thing I've learned at every stage in my career is patience.
- My experiences in the Hindi film industry made me question the idea of Bollywood, celebrity culture and the role of savarna culture-makers.
- It's time to realize that the pompous, neo-liberal, savarna feminism is not going to liberate anyone. Unless the Savarna feminists do not dismantle the same power structures from which they have benefited, women in this country will continue to be gas-lit, exploited and maligned; their dreams thwarted, voices silenced, bodies assaulted and histories erased.
- Cinema, in the last 100 years has grown from silent moving images to one of the most lucrative businesses in the world. What I see primarily is the capitalization of a medium that is singularly responsible for overshadowing various other mediums of creative expression. What is interesting to see is that performing artists-mainly singers, dancers and actors who barely held much respectability up to the early 20th century are the biggest social influencers in present day society and claim a demigod like position across the world. In South Asian society in particular, it's fascinating to see how occupations/skills that were once viewed as impure or disgraceful have changed drastically with economics. Now dominant caste groups not only appropriate those spaces but also leave little or no room for those who were, historically, barely given any choice to take on other roles.
- I'm probably just a function of fragmented ideas of home, a curious mind and a rebellious spirit. My sense of self doesn't come from the way I look or my job or my economic-social-marital status. Neither does it come from what I've studied, where I come from, the things I own, the number of followers I have or for that matter, any identity ascribed to me. I question everything, have no rigid ideas, rules or a singular worldview. My journey continues to be of self-exploration through everything I do. The only thing I've learned in life so far is to have patience, be true to yourself and not take your successes or failures too seriously. Just try finding the Buddha in you, do things that catch your interest and go with the flow.
- Catfights in a rat race? We aren't cats and rats. We're girls.
- Being an actress, I would like to do all kinds of roles. Unfortunately, I have my limitations. I can't play an African-American girl. But I am ready to essay any role that I can fit into.
- At some point of time, I felt modeling was a monotonous work. I feel films are intellectually stimulating as we need to convince the audience that what they are watching is real. When you work months together on a film, the emotional involvement is also more. So I shifted my interest away from modeling.
- The director is more important than my co-star.
- Our history has several examples of people trying to change set patterns in cinema. So this surge of new voices in cinema isn't new.
- I'm not interested in having a sanitized image of myself. I'm interested in complex characters and I'll always be interested in portraying them whenever i get the opportunity.
- I am going through a transitional phase in my life. I have done my bit of moving to the city, trying to build a career. There's so much of loneliness in city life. Everybody is so aspirational. The city just limits you. I can't imagine any artiste growing following that process. It's so important to travel, meet different people, only then can you translate that experience on camera. Decentralisation of talent is so necessary.
- I've always been this clueless girl, not too sure of the kind of movie I was a part of. But, it's been an interesting journey; every director has added some bit to this experimentation.
- If I just wanted to be a glamorous, pin-up girl all my life then I would have made different choices. But after a point it gets really boring to just put on layers of make-up and wear fancy outfits and get photographed. Doing that year after year one gets very lonely.
- [2014] "I was naive. I was doing everything. To begin with, I got a 10-film contract with Raj Kanwar. But he never started any film. John Matthew took me out of contract and we made A New love Ishtory but it also didn't release. Then I signed Mud Mud Ke Na Dekh with Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision which was shelved. All these films including Miss lovely were happening at the same time. Finally, contrary to my expectations, Miss lovely turned out to be the biggest film of my career."
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