Actor Sonakshi Sinha likes how things have been in her career so far. But going forward, she’d like something to change — she doesn’t want to settle for small parts: “I don’t want to be repetitive or do characters that aren’t strong.” So, is she referring to the damsel in distress kind of roles? “Not really. If I have to play that at some point, it’s my job to portray a character. But, if I get to play a serial killer, I won’t say I can’t do it. As an actor, you have to play different roles,” she says.

The 34-year-old, who will be seen in films such as Double XL and Kakuda, says she doesn’t find the ‘commercial heroine’ image a hindrance in being considered for more meaningful roles.

“I have never strategised anything, or thought that at this point, I will only do such films. I did a film like Lootera (2013) at the beginning of my career, right in the middle of those commercial films. From the beginning, people never questioned my abilities as an actor, so it wasn’t difficult for them to imagine me in certain kinds of roles,” says Sinha.

She feels that the way he audience accepted her in films such as Dabangg (2010) and Rowdy Rathore (2012) made the makers believe that she could headline films, too: “Since I did films like that, I got to do movies such as Double XL. I got the power and courage to headline films.”