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cosmo interview
Styling: Amandeep Kaur; Assisted By: Sanjana
Ghai; Art Direction: Vidhi Mirpuri; Hair and Make-
Up: Amanender Sidhu; Assisted by: Amit Sharma;
Location Courtesy: Sumiet Dalal Farms, Faridabad
molested. Shoojit [Sarcar] sir prepped me by putting me
through a back-breaking boot camp, making me watch
video after video of girls going through horrifying
incidents of molestation and eve-teasing. It would make
my blood boil to the point of making me want to spit
physical violence—and I took that knuckle-twitching
anger and threw it all up on camera.” She claims it’s the
only time she’s legitimately cried on stage. “I don’t cry
easily—it’s a challenge most of my directors face. I’m a
reach-for-the-glycerin kind of actor. But here, it’s like I
couldn’t stop! They were angry tears—and it was strange
for even me to digest that they were actually coming
from me. I mean, I’ve never even cried after a breakup!”
She reneges on that statement a split second after she
makes it. “Well, there was this one time in ninth grade.
This boy broke my spirit by ending things because, I kid
you not, he needed to ‘focus on his studies’!” She gives us
a shrug and shake-of-head combo that has ‘just high-
school things’ written all over it. “But it hit me something
fierce back then—I was at the local PCO every day,
calling him in tears and asking him why he’d left me, and
begging him to work it out. I swore to myself from that
day on—I’d never cry over a man again.” It was perhaps
this staunchness that led her to decide she’d never date a
guy unless she could see herself marrying him. “If I’ve
been in a relationship with someone, you can bet that
I’ve run through the whole gamut in my head—
marriage, kids, house; the works. Otherwise, I won’t even
bother.” It’s part of why she says she’d never go back to
an ex. “I wouldn’t even stay friends with them, to be
honest. If it’s over, it’s over. He can come back in his most
delectable avatar, but if I’ve seen that visual of the future
shatter into shards, there’s no boomeranging. You don’t
lick what you’ve spit out,” she says, with an unforgiving
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COSMOPOLITAN jAnuARy 2017
Ruffled dress and
cat-eye sunglasses,
both Fendi; faux
fur capelet, Varun
Bahl; star earrings,
theredbox.co.in
gleam in her eyes. For the TBA Mr Right, though,
there’s one deal-breaker. “Men who are their own
resume, basically. Constantly talking themselves up, and
listing out their accomplishments. Yeuch!” She claims
that sense of self-absorbedness is why she wouldn’t date
an actor either. “I barely ever look in the mirror myself—
can you imagine how awful it would be if he was always
doing it?” She poo-poohs the thought, but also adds that
she has expectations from herself just as much in a
relationship. “If he needs to be exciting, I do as well. We
should both be funny, amusing, interesting,
understanding...it’s not fair to write out a laundry list for
n
him to fulfill and deliver nothing myself!
The Cosmo Quiz
1. A character I’d love to play is a psychotic
supervillain.
2. I absolutely refuse to eat red meat.
3. Never have I ever smoked. Not even a drag.
4. You’d be surprised to know that I can’t swim.
5. The perfect Sunday breakfast is an omelette to
start, followed by aloo puri and pav bhaji...
6. I grew up reading a lot of textbooks. I was a
total nerd.
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