As embarrassing as this may sound, before I started work on the period action drama, Manikarnika, I didn't even know that fencing was a professional sport. It was Hollywood action director, Nick Powell, an expert in the field, who introduced me to different kinds of sword fighting. The Chinese style is quick and direct, the sword held straight out like the Japanese Samurai. The sword is slightly bent in the Indian version, which goes back 1000 years and is inspired by Kerala's martial arts form Kalaripayattu.

Having learnt ballet earlier, it was easy for me to grasp the choreography of the action sequences, but I looked more like a graceful dancer than a lethal warrior. Combat training requires a squat, Bharatanatyam-like pose, the legs spread wide, the knees slightly bent and the attacker balanced on the heels rather than poised on the toes like I was. So, there was a lot of unlearning to do before the actual learning.

Nick's main concern, and legitimately so, was that I wouldn't look convincing as a woman leading an army owning to my petite frame. And the makers couldn't invest me with any superpowers because Manikarnika was an extraordinary woman but very human, possessing extraordinary strength and skill. The only thing that worked in my favour is that my wrists are thin and flexible so I could wield two swords easily. But being a vegan, I was low on energy and needed to take breaks every 15 minutes. This exasperated Nick, who doesn't compromise on training, and he was prepared to fly back.

“If you can't achieve what we set out to do, I'm not going to make a fool of myself,“ he told me bluntly. I whined saying I had never done such intense training before and when I screamed, my head hurt. I asked him for some more time and he told me that we didn't have time. He had worked with Tom Cruise for four months on The Last Samurai and with Mel Gibson for a couple of months on Braveheart. He just had four weeks to get me battle ready and he wasn't making much headway.

So, then, I called my mother and asked her to send me some desi ghee. I would fry besan in this ghee, add jaggery and eat this every day, falling back on the diet followed in the olden days as my own lettuce diet didn't cut ice. I put on around six-seven kg, built up stamina and could train for four hours nonstop. And Nick stayed on.

My director, Krish, has portrayed the queen as a woman in action and in the course of my research, I learnt that wars then were personal and not fought from a control room using buttons. You cut open a person's organs, beheaded him, the blood gushing out, spilling over your face and clothes, as you moved to the next kill. You waited till the end of day to wash the blood down the drain, before waking up to a new battle cry. I had to desensitize myself to all the blood because in this respect, I've always been naturally timid. While in school, I would get the jitters if I had to cut open a mouse or a cockroach and so couldn't pursue science. For this prep, I called for meat at home and would butcher it.

Since swords are related to myths and folklore, they are romanticized to a point where you don't feel their threat. Nick calls the sword a blade, and when I was brandishing one, he'd tell me, “If I hold the blade like this, it will go straight through your throat,“ or “Your shoulder is exposed, I can get you there and you'll be dead.“ That made me realize this wasn't a game, if I didn't block myself, I could be fatally injured. The fact that we were using metal swords, even though they were blunt, added to the danger.

In my introductory sequence, I was on a horse, fighting with two swords, when my co-actor, Nihar Pandya, missed his cue and hit me. My face was covered in blood but since I was in character, I didn't react like the others, just calmly announced that we should go to the hospital. It was only later, when I was alone and resting, that I realized Manikarnika had influenced me to a degree that I didn't feel any pain. Even the fact that my face could have been disfigured hadn't made me panic because I had been on an adrenaline rush. “So what, it's just a battle scar,“ I had dismissed my producer's anxiety with something I had never felt before.

It's hard to understand the psyche of these people who lived on the edge and revelled in the thrill of escaping death. One wrong step, and your head is lying on the ground. I experienced these heightened emotions when I was on the battle field myself. During the 30-day schedule, we completed all the action scenes, including my introductory sequence, the sequence before the interval and the climax. Now, the drama portions will be shot over a 60-day schedule. The kind of violence you will see is unbelievable. I had to evoke a side of me I didn't know existed to live the warrior queen. There were times when even I was scared by this manifestation of Chandi Maa but it was the need of the hour and the script.

All non-vegetarians know how difficult it is to quit food with blood and flesh. But Kangana Ranaut has achieved doing that, close to two months back, with sheer will power. Talking to us, she said, “Spiritually, being a non-vegetarian was blocking me. It was hard to leave and I won't say that I don't crave it, but you can do it with your will power.

Eating just vegetables and food without blood or flesh, is so nice. My skin, face and how I feel as a person has changed. And I feel it's a small price to pay for so many things.“