'The camera loves me'

She has worked in films like Delhi in a Day, Chakravyuh and With You Without You, a Sri Lankan film, for which she received the Silver Peacock Award for Best Actress at International Film Festival of India, but Anjali Patil says she had never thought of becoming an actor.

“It just happened. But then I realised that the camera is something that transforms me and truly loves me. I feel extremely comfortable in front of it,” says the actor who will next be seen in filmmaker Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Mirzya.

In the October 7 release, which also stars debutants Harshvardhan Kapoor and Saiyami Kher, Patil essays the role of Zeenat. Talking about her character, which she says is mystical and has many Sufi elements to it, Patil tells Metrolife, “Zeenat is the soulmate of Mirzya in the contemporary times. They are childhood friends and she has always loved him. She, however, never expresses it to him, and gets married to someone else. But her love for him is selfless and everlasting.”

Sharing her experience of working in the film, which is inspired by the Punjabi folklore of Mirza Sahiban, Patil, who has also starred in the Telugu film, Na Bangaaru
Talli for which she received the National Film Award – Special Mention, says that she has always been a fan of Mehra.

“We first met after the National Awards function, after which I heard that his team was looking for me. I have always been a fan of his experimental style of filmmaking. And after actually working with him I can say that it was a heavenly experience because of the way he handles his actors, and the kind of space he gives them to flourish,”
she says.

On the experience of working with newcomers, Patil laughs and says that she herself feels like a newcomer every time she walks into the sets. “I literally have butterflies in my stomach,” she says.

“However, it was important for me to make Harshvardhan and Saiyami comfortable on the sets. There was double responsibility on me to not act like a senior actor, and rather gain their trust. So I used to spend a lot of time with them talking and having fun,”
she says.

Patil, whose future projects include Newton (with Rajkummar Rao), Rakul Shankalya’s Nimmo and Marathi film The Silence, says that while there are no specific roles she would like to essay, she points out that “I have to explore various shades as
an actor”.

“It is essential that the character is well-written. And even if it is a similar character, the challenge for me as an actor will be to show how I can make it look different,”
she says.