From playing the heroine's best friend in "Tanu Weds Manu" to a middle-aged mother of a 15-year-old in "Nil Battey Sannata", a prostitute in "Anaarkali of Aarah" to one of the leading ladies in a multi-starrer all-women buddy film "Veere Di Wedding" -- actress Swara Bhaskar has explored characters that an image-conscious budding actress would fear to do. She says breaking stereotypes is the best way to set her own rules for her acting career.

"I never feared to take a risk. When I came to the film industry, since I had no idea of how to go about it, people gave me a lot of advice on what not to do... I was told not to play any character of a sister or best friend of the protagonist as then people would only offer me second lead. "I was told not to play vamp and mother at a young age... Now you know what are the characters I have played in films. I thought if those are the rules to get the lead role, why not break them? Why not get rid of stereotypes to set my own rules?" Swara told IANS in an interview here. "I think the best way to deal with stereotypes is by taking a risk, by trying new things without fearing the failure," added the 30-year-old actress. What is her way to identify the potential of a script? Swara credits her collaborators. "I think I am lucky that I worked with some of the great filmmakers. When it comes to eTanu Weds Manu' or eRaanjhanaa' and I would like to give the credit to Himanshu Sharma who wrote the script of the film. He is such a brilliant writer that any competent actor can just perform following the script and they will still look as brilliant as it was.