Those who have worked with Anurag Kashyap will tell you how the filmmaker serves as a source of inspiration to them. It’s no different for Alaya F. For the actor who features in the upcoming Almost Pyaar With DJ Mohabbat, Kashyap is God-sent — one who showed faith in her when nobody in the industry did.

“Almost Pyaar was the first film I signed, even before my debut vehicle, Jawaani Jaaneman [2020]. At the time, I was facing back-to-back rejections. People would praise [my reel], but I would never hear back from them. This confused me about the industry, and made me doubt myself. But when I showed my reel to Anurag sir, he said, ‘I have a film that’s perfect for you.’ There was no more discussion; he offered me the film,” recounts Alaya.

That moment transformed the then-newcomer’s perspective. Then on, she went to auditions with renewed confidence. “That someone like him could believe in me gave me unparalleled confidence. It made me think I am worthy of being in the industry. I credit all the things that I got later, to that moment with sir. In a way, my career changed after that.”

Almost Pyaar With DJ Mohabbat, co-starring Karan Mehta, had its premiere at the Marrakech International Film Festival last month. While the romantic drama was in the making for the past four years, Alaya made a promising debut with Jawaani Jaaneman, which released only weeks before the pandemic hit in 2020. Last year, she bagged Freddy, and the remake of the Kannada thriller, U-Turn. 

She says that collaborating with Kashyap made her an assured actor who could juggle these different projects. “Anurag sir throws you into a world of filmmaking where everything is different from the normal way. After you’ve grasped that world, you feel a lot more prepared as an actor. When Freddy came to me, I had no time to prep, but working on Almost Pyaar had given me the confidence [that I’ll pull it off].”

Her start in the movies may have been slow, owing to the pandemic, but her hard work has earned her promising roles in Ekta Kapoor’s Ek Aur Ghazab Kahani, and Rajkummar Rao-led Sri.