While Kalki has had a busy year, the actress always prioritises spending time with her four-year-old daughter Sappho over everything else. In a chat with us, she talks about balancing parenting duties and her career, how she longs to continue working and how excited she was when Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (ZNMD) re-released in theatres earlier this year. Excerpts:

Kalki, who is based out of Goa, has to keep travelling for her work, even to foreign locations. Ask Kalki, who shot for Her Story this year, how she manages her shooting schedules while being a hands-on mom, and she says, “The longest I have been away from Sappho is three weeks for a shoot. Earlier this year, when I was in France for a whole month for a shoot, I spoke to her much earlier and told her I would be away. Sometimes, she bargains with me on the number of days I can be out. Whenever I am out working, I narrate bedtime stories through voice notes. She listens to them before going to sleep. It can be difficult, but we have to face it together because even I long to work.”

Earlier this year, ZNMD, which featured Kalki along with Hrithik Roshan, Abhay Deol and Farhan Akhtar, was re-released in the theatres. Talking about the response the film got, Kalki said, “Now the one thing everyone has been asking me is when’s the sequel coming? I have no answer to this question (laughs). I feel excited that the movie has been relived and rewatched after so many years in theatres.”

The Zoya Akhtar directorial released in July 2011. Kalki, who usually doesn’t like watching her own films, has seen the film thrice. “Even Guy (husband, Guy Hershberg) enjoyed the movie. He found my character funny because it is very different from what he sees of me in real life. I think Sappho has danced on the film’s track Sooraj Ki Baahon Mein in her school,” says the actress.

Reminiscing about the days of shooting ZNMD, she shares, “It was my first big Bollywood film. Of course, I did have a good start with Dev D, but it was still an off-beat kind of film. I got along well with Hrithik Roshan while shooting ZNMD. We share our birthday. We bonded over similar things. I shared with him how I struggle with dancing, and he spoke to me about his struggle with speech.”

Talking about what made the shooting experience special, she said, “We shot the film abroad (Spain), and the nature of the film was such that everybody was together. The separation was not there, and that hierarchy was not felt. I really didn’t appreciate how important and special it was at that time because as time went by and I did more movies, I realized that the separation or hierarchy is something that is ingrained in our system, and ZNMD was indeed a special experience.”