It's a classic case of life imitating art for Chak De! India actress Sagarika Ghatge, who got engaged to her cricketer beau Zaheer Khan on Monday in Goa. On her way back to Mumbai, she spoke to BT about her new innings, wedding plans and the celebrations that lie ahead. Excerpts...

THE CONNECTING FACTOR
Zaheer has achieved so much, but he is still very grounded. I have known him for two-three years now. Though we are very different, we share a few similarities as well. For instance, we are alike in terms of what we think of life and what we want from it. Also, we both love food.

WEDDING AND ENGAGEMENT
We will throw an engagement party after the (IPL) tournament ends. As far as the wedding is concerned, I'll sit with my parents and figure out a date. These days, all the good venues get booked in advance. So, once we get the venue, we'll decide on the date. There's no special date in our minds as such.

NOT HOUSE-HUNTING IN SOBO
Zac already has a pretty house in Mumbai, and I don't think we need another one right now. But if the need arises later, we will go ahead.

BREAKING THE NEWS ON SOCIAL MEDIA
It was not planned. Zac does things his own way. I'm sure he just felt it right to announce the news on his social media page. And once he did that, I reacted to it. It was a happy moment for us. We thought instead of building up the speculation, we'd rather let everyone know ourselves. Zac and I are private people, but we wanted to share this news with everyone.

REAL LIFE RESEMBLING HER REEL ROLE IN CHAK DE! INDIA
It's a coincidence that Zaheer too is a cricketer (like her character's boyfriend was in the film), but there's no connect beyond that. What happened in the film was completely the opposite! Zac is not the kind of person who remembers much about films, but he had an idea that messages regarding it would follow (laughs!).

SURPRISE ENGAGEMENT
I always knew that he was going to propose, but didn't expect it in the middle of the cricket tournament. My mom and dad are very happy. Zaheer has interacted with them a lot and even they knew it would happen, just that no one knew when. For any good occasion, the right time is when you feel it. I am sure Zac found this time right enough to pop the question.