No one remembers her from Samir Karnik's 2004 romance Kyun! ho Gaya Na... in which she played Aishwarya Rai's sister, Riya. For many, Kajal Aggarwal made her Bollywood debut opposite Ajay Devgn in the Rohit Shetty-directed cop drama, Singham, seven years later. And despite the film's super success, she disappeared down South, only to reappear as Akshay Kumar's leading lady in the heist thriller, Special 26 in 2013, followed by another two-year hibernation. Why this game of hide-and-seek?

Speaking to Mirror from Ooty, where she's filming the Tamil Telugu bilingual, Brahmotsavam, with Mahesh Babu, the 30-year-old actress points out that even down South, she's always opted for quality over quantity. “In this industry it's easy to get typecast and I've been careful even with my Tamil and Telugu films. Special 26 was not a substantial role in terms of screen time but I fell in love with the script immediately,“ says Kajal, who is gearing up for another comeback with Deepak Tijori's intense love story, Do Lafzon Ki Kahani, next year. “I play a blind girl or rather because of a disorder, she suffers from poor sight. So while Randeep (Hooda) trained in martial arts, I went to a Blind School and studied Braille.“

So, will the disappearing acts continue? “I hope not,“ she laughs, huffing and puffing on the treadmill. “I'd like to strike a balance between Bollywood and the South. After all, Hindi is my language and I am a South Mumbai girl.“