New Delhi: From playing the poor little rich girl Bambi Todi in “Murder Mubarak” to Usha Mehta, a spirited freedom fighter in “Ae Watan, Mere Watan”, Sara Ali Khan has done her best to showcase her abilities as an actor.

Well aware of her shortcomings and taking feedback both negative and positive on the chin, Sara confesses being an overthinker and very aware of the conversations around her, she says. “One gets to know one’s weaknesses and what one can do better. I don’t want La La Land happy, and everything is all good when it’s not, that’s not the life I envisioned”.

Though she seems visibly exasperated with the constant volley of questions on how she has been trying to change her image, the actor says perceptions of what others think can no longer weigh her down, as it once did in the best.

“It’s not so much about perception as much as it’s the way you may be perceiving yourself. I got a lot of my confidence back as an actor after Atrangi Re, which was cemented by the love I was given for Zara Hatkey, and I hope to continue getting that”. She further adds “I have reached a stage where I want love, appreciation, and validation, it’s normal to want those things but  I cannot let my sense of self, stop depending on that”. 

7 films old in the industry, the 28-year-old says her choices are purely driven by instinct. “It has to be instinctive and whenever it isn’t, it shows also. The interplay between my gut and instinct has not been as pure ever before as it has been  now.” 

She calls her mother Amrita Singh one of the greatest influences in her life. “My mother has always told me to honour my gut and has told me to work with those who have an eye on you. I felt that with  Kannan Iyer Sir in Ae Watan, Mere Watan, who made me feel so liberated to do what I wanted to do, knowing he would contain it control it, confine it, in the best way possible”.

With brother Ibrahim gearing up to make his Bollywood debut opposite Khushi Kapoor in Karan Johar’s Sarzameen, she says

“All I can tell Ibrahim is to embrace this journey that will have highs and lows. It will be his own and he will need to learn and live it.”

Sara is currently shooting for Anurag Basu’s Metro In Dinon, “thank god for it, otherwise this hectic month had I nothing to shoot it would have  been a lull.”