It’s the circumstances and the situations that she goes through that make her this way. The beauty of this character is that she doesn’t know she’s these things. My character is really amazing she has a lot of courage, and she’s a survivor. Chaubey being Chaubey managed to immerse us all into that world. I couldn’t even begin to understand the kind of life and world this girl belonged to. Chambal, even today, is really away from any kind of modernisation. And then it’s 1970s in Chambal! It’s not even in a place that I could recognise. To begin with, the film is set in the 1970s. Oh my God! She’s so far away from me, she’s so far away from the life that I’ve seen. I just wanted to be a part of the story I knew it would be a tough one to do but I wanted to do it.Īll the characters you’ve played till now have been far removed from who you are as a person. I truly feel he’s one of the finest filmmakers in our country, and for me to do a Chaubey film so early on in my career is truly an honour. It was anyway quite a moment for me, because he’s always been on my bucket list. When I heard the narration, I was blown away. And then he told me he’s directing this film himself, and I was like, ‘Okay.’ He then asked me when I’d like a narration, and I went, ‘Right now if you have the time’. I was mentally prepared for the conversation to be about that same film. I had met him once before, because we were in talks for some other film that they were producing. All I remembered after I hung up was - ‘Meet me in the office’. I immediately called him, but very little of that conversation really registered in my head. When he texted me asking to call when free, my brain was frozen. When he got in touch with me, I didn’t know it was for his film I thought it was for a film he was producing. When a director like Abhishek Chaubey comes to you with a film, is it an automatic ‘Yes’? Before Bhumi left to shoot this Anurag Kashyap-produced film with Taapsee Pannu, she chatted with The Telegraph about understanding Chambal, her new favourite co-star and holding a rifle for the first time. Coming up first is Abhishek Chaubey’s Sonchiriya that’s set in Chambal in the 1970s, followed by Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare with Konkona Sensharma and Saand Ki Aankh that she’s just started shooting for. After a comparatively quiet 2018, Bhumi Pednekar is in for an action-packed 2019.