‘I don’t want to be defined by one role or image’

Ten years after stepping into Bollywood with M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story, Disha Patani looks back at a decade that she describes simply as “a period of discovery”. 

From learning the basics of being on a film set to becoming more confident about her craft, the actor says the biggest change has been within herself.

“When I did M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story, everything was new to me. I was learning how a set works, how to face the camera, how to understand a character and how to take direction,” she recalls. 

While she was “very instinctive” at the time, Disha says she now has a better understanding of her craft and is “more comfortable trusting” herself.

Yet, she does not want that confidence to turn into complacency. “I never want to reach a point where I feel like I know everything or that I can do something without putting in the work,” she says. 

For her, the uncertainty that comes with every new character is what keeps acting exciting. “I think the bigger fear would be losing that curiosity.”

That curiosity is also pushing Disha towards unexplored territory. She wants to take on characters with greater contradictions and roles where “the physicality or the glamour isn’t the focus and the character itself carries the film”. 

Psychological dramas, character-driven thrillers and action projects with challenging characters are on her wish list.

As she begins her next decade, Disha says she wants to take more risks and work across different filmmakers, languages and genres. “I don’t want to be defined by one particular kind of role or image,” she says.