Shortly before he became the OTT sensation/star of sorts, actor Pankaj Tripathi used to be Alia Bhatt’s tutor — for a month. This is when Bhatt was preparing to play Kumari Pinky, a brutally abused, drugged-out migrant girl from the under-classes in 'Udta Punjab' (2016). “There is a ‘Pankaj Tripathi wave’ that came, na, but it came after that,” Bhatt recalls her trainer, whom she’d meet every day, mastering body language, Jharkhandi dialect, down to how her character sits on haunches for hours. 

It’s the only time in her career that Bhatt confesses she went “method” on herself. Meaning, abandoned cell-phone, never stepped out of hotel room, consumed no entertainment, spent time interacting/empathising with local youth, never switched on the TV, and simply marinated in the character, until the shoot ended. Why? Because she wanted to prove she was “a chameleon as an actor.” To whom? To herself, she says.