Amruta Khanvilkar was originally signed on for a six-day cameo in Neeraj Pandey’s upcoming Netflix series, Taskaree: The Smuggler’s Web. But clearly, she walked in and changed the plan. During auditions, the director asked her to perform a new scene on the spot — and minutes later, she bagged a meatier role. “When I performed the scene, Neeraj sir said, ‘Amruta, we want to cast you for a bigger role we have.’ That’s how I landed Mitali’s character,” she recalls.

Pandey also asked her if she could pull off action. Khanvilkar admitted she didn’t know stunts — but she is a dancer and understood rhythm. She said, “‘Sir, if you teach me choreography, I can do it in half an hour.’ They gave me an action sequence, which I did with the action master. People were surprised.”