A lead in a Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra film, a dark comedy opposite Rajkummar Rao which won at the Berlinale this year, a festival favourite opposite Nagraj Manjule and a part in a Thalaivaa film that she's presently shooting for - 2017 is a busy one for Anjali Patil. But when we meet the 29-year-old at an Andheri café, she tells us it wasn't so a few years ago. The actor, who made her debut in Delhi in a Day, post graduating from the National School of Drama, had been out of work for a couple of years. “After Chakravyuh (2012), which was my first big banner film opposite Arjun (Rampal) and Abhay (Deol), I was only offered similar roles - a naxal, a maid, a village girl. I didn't want to do parts which were offered to me because I look a certain way,“ says the actor who didn't want her skin tone to limit her aspirations. “Our obsession with light skin has to do with colonization and also says that our society hasn't evolved. We are OK with fair girls who can't act as lead but not the other way around.“

But Patil seems to have navigated the prejudices of the film industry. In fact, she won a National Award and the Nandi Award for her performance in the Telugu film Naa Bangaaru Talli and a Silver Peacock at IFFI for her Sri Lankan film With You, Without You. “I can play five maids but all will be distinctly different from the other. But that doesn't mean I am slotted into a box and restricted to certain characters,“ says Patil.

Owing to lack of relevant offers coming her way, Patil decided to break away from the city in 2015 to invest in some soul searching. She also “renounced“ all her belongings, barring four pairs of clothes, and embarked on a road trip from Rishikesh to Ladakh - a trip that lasted for a year-and-a-half, during which, she lived in ashrams and monasteries and even learnt Buddhist philosophy. “Travel helped me connect with myself. Everything you do, you learn something about yourself,“ says Patil, who discovered that she was “intuitive“ and “not receptive to being told what to do“.

It was during this trip that she was offered Rahul Shanklya's Nimmo. “I agreed to do it because they were shooting in Jabalpur and I didn't need to move back to Mumbai,“ says Patil. She completed the shoot and disappeared to Nepal to live in a monastery again. “Every film is like a love affair and once it's over, you need to forget it and begin on a clean slate.“

During this quest, the actor rejected projects because they “required a year's commitment“ and that didn't agree with her “bohemian nomad self“. “The day I switched on my phone in Nepal, I got a call from Amit (Masurkar). I read the brilliant script of Newton and just had to do it,“ she says of the film which won the CICAE Art Cinema Award at Berlinale this year.

But it is only when she bagged the lead in Mehra's Mere Pyare Prime Minister, which narrates the story of a slum kid who strives to build a toilet for her mother, that she moved back to Mumbai. Accepting to play a character who hails from humble surroundings - basically a part that restricts her to the same stereotype she has been striving to break - Patil took it up because she wanted to “experience the process“ of working with Mehra.

But it was working with Rajinikanth in Kaala (presently under production) that altered her perception of the craft. “He is every bit of enigma. There's celebration in the air when he's around and I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't met him,“ she says. Patil recalls shooting with the South superstar in Grant Road recently. “Since it was time for iftaar, it was crowded. But he got off his car and requested the crowd to cooperate and everyone obliged.“ This is when Patil learnt about “the influence that comes with stardom“ and that it can be used for larger good.

Growing up in Nashik before she moved to Pune to pursue her graduation in performing arts, Patil's earliest association with the craft was her ability to come up with elaborate lies. “If I skipped tuitions, I'd tell my mother that I was on my way to classes but a huge cow blocked my path and I couldn't get past it despite my best efforts,“ she laughs. While her exposure to films was limited during childhood, she credits her father for introducing her to the works of K L Saigal and films such as Do Bigha Zameen, which most of her peers were unaware of. “Hemant Kumar and Manna Dey's songs would be lullabies and my father had a collection of his favourites, which became mine too.“ Following her graduation, when she applied to the National School of Drama, she took up the direction course as she was “unhappy about how directors treated actors“. “I had long hair so I'd play Stella in Street Car Named Desire and similar parts. I felt being just an actor was limiting at the time.“

Patil also has two Marathi releases this year - Silence with Manjule and Bardo with Makarand Deshpande. Yet, she feels she has barely managed to make the most of the renaissance in Marathi cinema. “No one reached out to me. Sometimes, when you're perceived as an intense actor and you win a National Award, people feel you're a certain kind of actor and slot you,“ she says.

After delivering Tanu Weds Manu Returns, one of the biggest hits of 2015, filmmaker Aanand L Rai is excited about broadening his horizons in 2016. He has an interesting slate of movies under his banner Colour Yellow Productions, starting with Ashwini Iyer Tiwari's Nil Battey Sannata. Featuring Swara Bhaskar, Ratna Pathak Shah and Pankaj Tripathi, it's about a poor, single mother's travails and how she wants her daughter to get every opportunity in life. The movie, which is co-produced by Jar Pictures, is also being remade in Tamil by actor Dhanush.

Known for his penchant for unconventional casting, Rai is also backing Mudassar Aziz's Happy Bhag Jaayegi, starring Abhay Deol, Diana Penty and Ali Fazal. Produced in association with Krishika Lulla's corporate house, a schedule of this film has been shot in Chandigarh.

It will be followed by Manmarziyan, a romantic drama with Ayushmann Khurrana, Bhumi Pednekar and Vicky Kaushal (of Masaan fame). Set in Amritsar, the film is directed by Sameer Sharma. Later this year, Rai will collaborate with director Navdeep Singh (of NH10 and Manorama Six Feet Under fame), for a project that is currently in the scripting stage. His company's next offering is an out-of-the-box yet relatable venture called Nimmo, helmed by Rahul Shanklya. Keeping in sync with his love for Indian families, Rai has also roped in south filmmaker RS Prasanna to direct the Hindi remake of his Tamil blockbuster Kalyana Samayal Saadham.

Rai enthuses, “It was an interesting journey to direct and produce Tanu Weds Manu Returns. I'm thrilled with the versatile talent we have on board at Colour Yellow Productions. The process of scripting, casting, scouting for locations and putting the entire project together is so exciting that I'm looking forward to our movies in the coming months.“