Sara Ali Khan On What She Learnt From Her Failures: You Have To Keep Unlearning And Reinventing Yourself

Sara Ali Khan made an impressive debut with Sushant Singh Rajput-starrer Kedarnath in 2019. Her next film Ranveer Singh's Simmba was a huge success at the box office. She was later seen in Imtiaz Ali's Love Aaj Kal opposite Kartik Aaryan. However much to the disappointment, the romantic drama failed to entice the audience and the critics. Even Coolie No 1 alongside Varun Dhawan failed to garner a good response.

Recently in a chat with film critic and journalist Anupama Chopra for Film Companion, Sara spoke about what she has learnt from her failures.

The actress was quoted as saying, "Before Kedarnath, I had no expectations [from myself]. After Kedarnath and Simmba, people started having expectations and took me on a pedestal, almost overnight. And then, after Love Aaj Kal, I was taken off that pedestal, again overnight. I learnt two things from here: the first one was that success and failure would keep coming but on the inside, you have to be motivated, driven and keep learning. More often than that, you have to keep unlearning and re-inventing yourself."

She added, "Another thing that I learnt was how much I want my mom, my media and my audiences to love me. I got it after Kedarnath and Simmba without even knowing I wanted it. So, I wasn't starving [for it]. But after Love Aaj Kal, I was starving. And I was very privileged to be given this opportunity by Aanand ji, because I'm not hungry anymore. I want validation. I want mom to be like, 'I loved you.' I want my audience to love me. But as an actor, as a creative person, I am already so thankful and satiated just having played this character.

In the same interview, Sara also talked about sharing screen space with Dhanush in her upcoming film Atrangi Re.

She said, "Dhanush sir was so helpful. We don't really speak in the same language. I'm more comfortable with Hindi on set, while he is more comfortable with English. But I would still discuss scenes with him. That's when I realized the power of your eyes and emotions because he would sometimes read my lines with me in English, and I would see what he was doing [with his eyes and expressions]. That made me realize what Aanand ji used to say - 'Himanshu [Sharma] has written great dialogues, the teacher has given you a great Bihari dialect but I don't care about any of these things. It's all in your eyes.' That was something beautiful to watch, learn and develop every day on set."

Helmed by Aanand L Rai, Atrangi Re also stars Akshay Kumar in a pivotal role. The film is slated to release on December 24 on Disney+Hotstar.