As much as she has enjoyed the quiet that Dharamshala offered her over the past two months, Fatima Sana Shaikh is itching to return to Mumbai in time for the release of Suraj Pe Mangal Bhari. Admitting that she missed watching films on the big screen during the lockdown, the actor has only one item on her to-do list. "I am tired of watching films on a laptop, and will go to the theatre to watch the movie," she declares. The Manoj Bajpayee and Diljit Dosanjh starrer is set to be the first Bollywood offering to hit the marquee post the pandemic.

In setting the comedy in the '90s, director Abhishek Sharma intends to capture pre-social media innocence. The sentiment strikes a chord with Shaikh who believes that romances in those days — when ghosting wasn't invented as a word in the dating dictionary, and the concept of right swipe was alien — had their own charm. "I am a '90s kid. I remember talking to boys on the landline, pulling the extension wire up to my bedroom so that nobody knows about it. We didn't have mobile phones or WhatsApp; instead, we had patience as we waited for a reply [from our crush]. Now, it's convenient thanks to dating apps. But I have no idea how many people get seriously involved after meeting on these apps."

After attempting drama in Dangal (2016) and Thugs of Hindostan (2018), the actor is excited about trying her hand at comedy. "I have a bad sense of humour, and crack silly jokes. But I was surrounded by brilliant actors who helped me improve my comic timing," she says.