Sonakshi Sinha reveals that even as a child she knew that she would be a performer. She gave her first public performance at age 10 when her dad, Shatrughan Sinha, who was in New Zealand for a show, put his little moppet on the stage and instead of his trademark 'khamosh', told her to sing. “I'd never felt so good before and to this day I love being on stage and performing,“ says the 29-year-old actress who is gearing up to release her second single, two years after “Aaj Mood Ishqholic“ in 2015. “Work has begun, I'm really excited,“ confirms the actress, refusing to divulge details. Meanwhile, Sonakshi, who had earlier judged the singing reality show Indian Idol Junior 2, is returning to television for a dance reality show this time, Nach Baliye Season Eight, with director Mohit Suri and choreographer Terence Lewis as her co-judges. Will we see her shake a leg on stage? “I'm sure the channel and the show's creative team has already come up with several ideas for me, knowing my love for dancing. If I were asked for my preferences, I would definitely want to groove to 'Gulabi aankhen' and 'Move your lakk'. I've sung the latter with Badshah and Diljit (Dosanjh),“ she beams happily.

Next month, she will reunite with her first co-star, Salman Khan, for a concert tour named after her debut film, Da-Bangg The Tour. “This is my first live concert with Salman and I'm really excited the Dabangg pair will be back soon. He's a great live performer and I'm sure we'll go mad together on stage, dancing to our charttoppers from Dabangg and Dabangg 2,“ she exults, admitting that she's also been approached to perform at Justin Bieber's first concert in India. “Talks are at a preliminary stage about me performing. I'm really looking forward to the concert because I really like him as an artist and am happy he's going to be performing in Mumbai.“

Abhay Chopra's Ittefaq remake kicked off last month and Sonakshi asserts that the shoot is going well. “It's a young team backed by experienced production houses so we have the best of everything, right from the camera crew to art and action,“ she says. Given that Nanda's character in the original had plenty of secrets to hide, isn't she apprehensive about being labeled a vamp? “It's not a negative character, it just has shades of grey. I'm not apprehensive, rather I'm excited to be playing a character I've never played before and experiment with a different genre. I'm sure the audience will enjoy me in a different role too,“ she signs off.