You can hear a sense of wonder in her voice as Arushi Sharma acknowledges that a fleeting scene in Tamasha (2015) changed her life. An IT engineer by education, the youngster made a brief appearance as Princess Sanjukta in the song Chali Kahani, in the Imtiaz Ali-directed venture. Cut to five years later, she finds herself romancing Kartik Aaryan in the filmmaker's next, Love Aaj Kal.

"I shot for that film five years ago, and had tasted blood [after the cameo]. I went up to him and told him I would love to do movies. Even though I subsequently got a nine-to-five job in Gurgaon, I had an alternate life at home. I would get home from my job and make audition tapes," shares Sharma. When she was called for an audition to Delhi last February, little did she know that she would find herself face-to-face with Ali again. "At the audition, I saw this curly-haired, tall man. It turned out to be Imtiaz sir. I got locked for the part 10 days later."