Thanks to Parineeta, I have had a very good rapport with the entire production unit. So when I went to shoot for Eklavya I knew most of the people. I felt very comfortable.

I got to interact with Vidhu a lot more this time during our readings and workshops. I have become very comfortable with him now. He has a lot of faith in his actors. Once he decides on an actor for a particular role, he does not set limits. He lets you be.

So he does not tell you how he wants a particular shot?

He does not restrict the movement of his actors. He will not say this is your mark, take the light from here, come from a particular point to another for the camera movement... Instead, he would say do whatever you have to do; I will frame the shot accordingly.

For example, take my first scene in Eklavya. I was supposed to look scared but I was looking angry. So he told me to think of Zuni -- how she would react if he shouted at her.

Of course, if you don't deliver, he will shout at you. For the song Chanda re, I had to learn to fly a kite. I did not read the script properly, and missed it. So I did not learn how to fly a kite. We had to cheat by showing the action of flying a kite, but there was no kite there.

He got really annoyed then. But I reasoned with him that since Nandini is a child, it does not matter whether she knows how to fly a kite or not.

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