India, March 14 -- I don't want to do any character that doesn't have agency. In my last two pieces of work, The Royals and Daldal, both my characters had agency. I will never play a girl who conforms to all the stereotypes or all the conditioning that every other woman is trying to fight. I don't have a problem playing a grey character or villain. If I am part of a magnum opus, and there are four scenes, but those scenes where I get to show something that I've never done, I will do it. It is not about the size of the role; it is about the impact. This is just a part of me. My art has a lot of advocacy, and I as a person do, too. I am lucky that my first film, Dum Laga Ke Haisha (2015) taught me that cinema has a lot of power if you know how to use it well. Main jis tarah ke parivar mein badi hui hoon wahan pe maine hamesha dekha hai mere mother, father ko bahut community service karte hue. I was always taught 'nation first, community first'. I think these learnings somehow reflect in my films. I have a lot of activism in me, and a lot of fun was made of it at one point. When I started my career, there was a certain innocence in that Bhumi that isn't there today. A lot of that also comes with just spending these many years working. Agar kisi bhi profession mein hoti life, aapke experiences ek amount of hardening, and dar har insaan mein paida kar dete hain. The girl in Daldal is more mature. The similarity is that both are fearless. I was fearless then, and I am that now, too. I felt it coming last year after shooting Daldal and a film. I couldn't gather the strength to take that break. We are always told that, as a woman, how can you take a break? The clock is ticking, aur aapko yeh lag raha hai ki oh my God, now you know I am growing older. because this is your conditioning. I was very scared. I wasn't able to give myself to acting the way I used to, maybe a little earlier. And it's not like meri mehnat mein ya meri koshish mein koi kami thi. I felt depleted emotionally. I had seen a lot of struggle before I became an actor... I think once you become an actor, your life becomes monotonous in many ways because you are only working. You are going from one film set to another. If as an artiste I have nothing left to take from, ek ghada hota hai experiences ka, jo as an artiste aap apni performance mein daalte hain, wahi deplete ho gaya tha. Ek dum se vanilla ho gayi thi meri life, and I wanted to change that. I was an uninhibited actor, kyunki main kabhi race mein thi hi nahin. Main toh khud ki jagah bana rahi thi aur main race mein kab jud gayi, mujhe pata hi nahin chala. And that started affecting my mental health, everything. I have always been a planner. A lot of things that have happened in my life have been magic, and it has been God's blessings. But I've always believed that you need to have a larger vision about what your life is. Even if you don't have solid goals, there's a larger vision, right? If you know what the next decade of your life is gonna look like and you feel that you need more skill, you need more time, or you just want to do nothing, that is also okay. You don't owe anybody an explanation, nobody but yourself. I feel that people have forgotten ki by the end of it hum insaan hain. You can't dehumanise a person you watch on screen. And all I want to say is that it's easier to say, 'It does not affect me'. It affects every one of us. How can it not? This is becoming a bit of a sickness. I feel bad for all of these people who have so much negativity to say because there have been times where I have gone to this wormhole, and I would see it's a woman who has pictures with her daughters. And I was like, 'The way you are objectifying other women on social media, what if your daughter were to be objectified like that?' It's just not okay. I would go a step further and say that we need strict laws against this, because this is not trolling; this is bullying. It is only a matter of time before a big incident happens, and then it will get nasty. Like, you know, you literally are telling people that, 'I hope you die.' What sort of darkness are you living in? What sort of sickness is here?...