Your choice of wheels…

I have an Audi Q5. And I am in love with the car. I haven’t gotten over it. It’s my longest, most fruitful relationship and I absolutely love it. I love the car, love the style, love the way it drives, I love sitting in it. So I feel like it’s an extension of my personality. I feel we make a very good match.

Your first car was…

A Maruti Swift. It was a second-hand car. I had bought it from my cousin.

Your most memorable drive…

It was a six-day trip that I did from Vancouver through Oregon down to the Redwoods in California and back up through Oregon to the coast of Oregon to Vancouver. So it was a 3,600km drive, and I was with my assistant. She and I would trek half the day and drive half the day. We would stay in a new place every day. I did this last year.

A song that’s playing on loop in your car…

I think it’s Makeba (by Jain). I can’t have enough of that song.

When it comes to fashion...

I am very lazy. I just wear whatever comes into my hands from my cupboard. I am not at all fashion-savvy. I just like to experiment with different things but I don’t like to chase fashion. I just keep it easy for me.

A contemporary Indian woman to you is...

Someone who holds on to her traditional values. The beauty of our culture is that we can hold on to our traditional values as well as accept the West and the modern-day world we live in. So I feel great love and affinity for women who are able to not let go of their tradition and along with that be women of today and stay relevant and just undaunted.

Challenges of being a woman in the film industry...

Society has changed and I feel it’s changing for the better. Experience has led me to believe that society today has less prejudice and is less ignorant towards women. If we look at women as individuals, there’s a duality there.
Women don’t necessarily become strong by virtue of being women and they don’t necessarily become any less capable because they are women. It works both ways. You have to find your identity, earn the place that you think you should have.

Wardrobe must-haves…

You must have a fabulous pair of jeans that complements your body type, a lovely tan-coloured cross-body bag, a nice pair of sunglasses, a good belt and a pair of nude heels.

The Lunchbox or Airlift?

The Lunchbox.

If not an actress, you would have been…

I would have been in the army actually.

Web series or television shows?

Movies… for life.

Your Me-time…

Me-time for me is cleaning for sure. I have OCD. I need to keep things at certain angles and all that kind of stuff. Also, listening to music. Sometimes I play the same songs 20-30 times and not get tired of it. I like to do my own beauty regimen. I like to do that in my me-time. Watch news, play with my cat and perhaps cook something.

What it means to you to play an Army officer in the web series The Test Case...

For the first time I felt this is not just a character that I am playing; it’s a part of my life that I am recreating on screen. I have grown up with the uniform being a part of my childhood fantasy. I wanted to be an army officer. That was my dream. But then I realised how difficult it was and here I am. It’s been the toughest role for me to play because of all the physical, emotional and mental exhaustion that came with it. We have shot all the 10 episodes (the first episode is already online). It’s a part that I know will always stay closest to my heart.
I loved wearing the uniform every single day on the sets. Shikha Sharma stands for all the possibilities that women are denied many times in society — professionally, personally and emotionally. I am playing the role of the first woman commando to be inducted in the Indian Army and that’s something we haven’t seen yet.

Your penchant for picking roles that are unusual...

I think it’s part choice and part chance. I like to be associated with projects that I feel for. I don’t think I can just work for money or just for the sake of staying busy; it’s not my temperament, I can’t do it. And yes, hopefully next year I will be busier with a lot more work compared to last year, which was a little bit slow.

Your celebrity crush…

It keeps changing! It’s Ryan Gosling.