As told to Natasha Coutinho (MUMBAI MIRROR; January 28, 2019)

My Hindi used to be really bad earlier so it feels good when I get so many compliments now with people saying, “Bachchon mein sabse saaf iski Hindi hai.” Learning to speak the language right was my main prep for my debut film Kedarnth. In fact, the first time Sushant (Singh Rajput, co-star) met me, he immediately noted my flawed diction and told me, “Teri Hindi saaf nahi hai, ab se hum sirf Hindi mein baat karenge.” So for every compliment that I get, I give a 100 per cent credit to Sushant with whom even now I only converse in Hindi.

My mom (Amrita Singh) also speaks Hindi well so listening to her helped me improve. Today, I’m more comfortable expressing myself in Hindi because sometimes when you are speaking English, you’re at a loss for the right words. That’s not the case with Hindi as it is the operative language we emote in.

Usually dancing for newcomers is a problem but I’ve trained in Odissi and could pull off the desi steps in Kedarnath with some help from my director (Abhishek Kapoor) and choreographer Adil Shaikh. For Simmba, I’d been practising on songs like “Chane Ke Khet Mein” in my dance class. When Ganesh Acharya sir demonstrated the robotic moves for “Aankh Maare” to Ranveer (Singh) and me, I was shocked. Simmba required a lot of dance rehearsals with Ranveer and when I pulled off those moves on screen, it was awesome!

Getting back to Kedarnath, just living on location for 45 days was a prep in itself. We started shooting 10 days after we had reached the location so Sushant and I would chat with the locals and try to understand their world. He interacted with the pitthus since he was playing one while I’d hang out with the local girls and Pandit families because my character, Mukku, came from there. The language, lifestyle and culture slowly seeped into us and we even started having chai like the locals.

I’m also more comfortable riding a horse after Kedarnth. We were shooting crazy hours since we had to wait for proper light and I was always on standby, sometimes sitting for seven hours at a stretch on the horse. There were times when even the animal was exhausted and restless. That was scary because I didn’t know how it would react. But today, thanks to these experiences, I’ve have grown pretty adept at handling a horse.