Almost half a decade in the Hindi film industry, yet Mrunal Thakur has never opted for the easy way out, always seeking diverse characters to showcase and explore her skill set. She reasons that it is not only to keep things interesting but also to ensure that the audience finds her in every genre.

“All I want to do is entertain people across genres,” she says, while assuring that she will keep doing romances. “The kind of romantic scripts I am now getting [after Sita Ramam] are so beautiful. And for the section that might like a thriller, for them, I have a Gumraah.”

The Aditya Roy Kapur-starrer, the remake of the 2019 Tamil hit Thadam, was released in theatres this Friday. Thakur believes that while making good content is important, its merit doesn’t matter if it is not promoted enough for the audience to know about its existence.

“Good films are being made, but people aren’t watching them because they aren’t aware. Earlier, I used to find it difficult to [promote films], but I am getting better at it. I realise it is a necessity,” says the actor, who has been observing how people are judging the film solely because it is a remake. Thakur urges people to give Gumraah a chance based on the trailer and the novelty of its casting and not on the “buzz and reviews”.

“Yes, Gumraah is a remake, but watch it for the director’s [Vardhan Ketkar] take [on the original], for Aditya who has given the best performance of his career, and because I haven’t done something like this before,” she appeals.

Thakur, who became one of the most sought-after actors post the multilingual film Sita Ramam (2022), has four more films in the pipeline this year—Pippa, Pooja Meri Jaan, Lust Stories 2 and Nani 30. “The idea is to show my versatility. Today, I have the confidence to look a filmmaker in the eyes and tell them, ‘Give me any role, and I would be able to perform it well’. There is nothing that I cannot do, and I want my audience to see that too.”