As told to Himesh Mankad (MUMBAI MIRROR; August 30, 2019)

I was aware that Sajid sir (Nadiadwala, producer) and Sabbir sir (Khan, director) were looking to cast a fresh face in Heropanti alongside Tiger Shroff. Sabbir sir had contacted the (talent management) agency I was signed up with after spotting me in TV commercials. At the time, I couldn’t do the film as I was about to sign something else. That film didn’t happen for some reason, and fortunately, the Heropanti team hadn’t found a girl either, so I met Sabbir sir and he took me through the story. I liked the fact that it was a commercial love story and had ample of scope for acting.

After the narration, they wanted to check how Tiger and I looked together. The test shoot, which was the first time I met Tiger, was organised at an outdoor location in Mumbai. There was this scene outside a temple, where Tiger holds my hand and I say, “Mandir mein bhi heropanti, kisi aur ko pakad le na”.

After that, Sabbir sir asked me to accompany him to Sajid sir’s office. In the car, he told me “In the next 10 minutes, you are signing the film.” I was taken aback as I hadn’t expected to sign a film on the day of my audition. Sajid sir had kept the contract papers ready with a box of chocolates. It was a mini celebration and I still remember it vividly.

Before the film went on the floors, Tiger and I attended a lot of reading sessions to rehearse the important scenes. I was on the set a day before my shoot to get a sense of the vibe there. But to be on set on the first day as Dimple was different. I believe a character comes alive only when the camera rolls.

Sabbir sir deliberately kept it simple on the first day to ease me into it. It was a shot in which I had to storm out of a room and walk towards the shed, where Tiger was. Everyone—the crew had a lot of fresh faces as well, including the assistant director—clapped after the shot.

It was a tricky shoot throughout as Tiger and I don’t have a single scene together till the interval. We are just talking through the shed, but we decided to help each other out. Even if he was not in the shot, he would still come to the shed to give me cues and vice versa. Both of us wanted to do a great job and we helped each other out. I was taking baby steps towards figuring out where my mark is, if my camera angle was right. As the shoot progressed, I had a lot of discussions with Sabbir sir, something I do even today with my directors. My debut film was a very comfortable set to be on.