Swaroop Sampat is having a nice stint of late, enjoying her roles on screen.

Latest, she stars in Rakesh Sain’s Nanoso Phobia, which is a part of Guneet Monga’s Zindagi inShort, an anthology of seven slice-of-life films.

“I love being in front of the camera. I am enjoying this second stint, working with such fabulous directors like Aditya Dhar and R. Balki and now I am working with Rakesh Sain,” the actress, married to Paresh Rawal, with whom she is yet to share screen space — although they starred in Aditya’s Uri: The Surgical Strike last year.

“In Nanoso Phobia, I play a Parsi and speak anglicised English. I was keen on playing such a character and I am glad that I got to. The director was apologetic that I had to re-shoot some scenes because of technical glitches. Same with Uri, Aditya apologised to me many times, especially during the scene where I go missing. I told him, don’t apologise I won’t get to experience something like this in real life and I enjoy giving retakes.”

Swaroop, 61, has starred in Ki and Ka (2016) and 2018’s web show The Great Indian Dysfunctional Family as the Ranaut matriarch.

One of her early movies was with Yash Raj Films — Nakhuda (1981).

“The music of Silsila was being recorded at that time and we would all go and sit to hear the recording. Aditya Chopra was too young but he was keen on direction even at that age,” she recalled.

Like her “short” character, though, Swaroop said she does not have any phobia.

“I do keep rechecking my time when I have to reach the airport. I think that’s some kind of anxiety, not phobia,” she said.

The actress, however, does not want to stay busy 24x7.

“I don’t want to play roles of mothers all the time. I want to do different characters. I want to work at my own pace. Stardom is not important to me, it’s nice to be recognised. For me, acting is stardom and I miss that at times. Since I do less work, producers and directors have assumed that I am choosy.

“Sometimes I lose out on good work. There are so many films with good content now. I have an interesting role in The White Tiger (starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Rajkummar Rao) where I am playing a corrupt chief minister from Bihar. American filmmaker Ramin Bahrani is directing the film, adapted from Aravind Adiga’s Man Booker Prize-winning novel. In the book, the character was a man but the director changed it to a woman. I am so glad he did,” she revealed.

Having not yet worked with Paresh Rawal, she rues that they have not gotten the chance to work together yet.

“I would love to work with Paresh some day. I played the lead in a film titled Lorie with Naseeruddin Shah. Paresh appeared in a cameo, so there too I didn’t get to share screen space. I wanted to do Hungama, I felt that role (Shoma Anand played Paresh’s wife in the 2003 film) suited me. I always fight with Paresh and tell him that you should have told Priyadarshan that I was keen to do the role,” she said.

The couple’s sons — Anirudh and Aditya — have also entered the film industry. “They are doing everything — right from acting, writing and direction. My younger son Aditya assisted (director) Anurag (Kashyap) while Anirudh worked with Naseeruddin. He was also assistant director in Sultan and Tiger Zinda Hai. I hope he gets to do a film with Yash Raj Films,” said the proud mom.

“My sons saw Uri and said ‘Mom you were better than Dad’,” she added.