Most actors will tell you that they chose a film because their character spoke to them. But Mrunal Thakur surprises us by saying that she initially didn’t identify with her role in Jersey. “The love story resonated with me, but [understanding] the ’90s portion was difficult,” she begins. The actor plays a pragmatic wife who has to run the house after her husband’s cricketing dreams are shattered. “Initially, it was difficult to [identify] with her because she was born in the ’70s. I [questioned] her actions. But Shahid [Kapoor] made me understand that it [would be difficult] for a woman in the ’90s to have a husband who doesn’t earn. He is at home, eating the bread that his wife has earned; that would be humiliating in that era [when people believed in gender roles]. I did the film because I haven’t seen such an emotional story in a while.”

A still from Jersey