Shalini Pandey is raking in praise for her standout act in a strong ensemble, comprising Shabana Azmi and Jyotika, in the Netflix series Dabba Cartel, which focuses on a group of innocuous-looking women running a drug cartel in a dabba system in the Mumbai suburb of Thane. The Telegraph chatted with Shalini, who has big-ticket projects like Arjun Reddy and Maharaj to her name.

Since Dabba Cartel is on OTT, I am sure you get to hear comments and feedback from new audiences every day. What has it been like so far?

It has been lovely. As you said, people are discovering it with time. Most people have enjoyed watching Dabba Cartel and have reached out to tell me and the rest of the team how much they loved it. I am very happy that it has been received the way we thought it would be.

It is special to know that people have not only taken out the time to watch the series, but have also made the effort to think about it, put their thoughts into words and then sent such generous messages. It is humbling and overwhelming. There are many people who have been following my career since Arjun Reddy and for them to consistently write in is very motivating for me. Friends and family will always stand by you, but it is beautiful when virtual strangers consider you a part of their family just because they like what you bring to the screen.

What was the sum total of the experience of playing Raji?

I was extremely excited to be on this set, especially given the kind of actors I was working with, especially Shabana ma’am (Shabana Azmi), who plays my mother-in-law in the series. That is why I became an actor... to go on set, be a new character every day and get to spend time and share screen space with some of the best talent this industry has to offer. My favourite part of this job is between ‘action’ and ‘cut’... everything else that comes with it is a bonus. My mom has been a huge admirer of Shabana Azmi and when I did Arjun Reddy, the first thing she told me was: ‘I wish some day you get to get with Shabana Azmi and Amitabh Bachchan.’ And look what happened with Dabba Cartel... my character probably has the maximum screen time with Shabana ma’am. My mom was over the moon when she heard it first! (Laughs)

The best thing is that I got to know Shabana Azmi not only as an actor, but also as a human being, a woman and an activist. That was my biggest takeaway from this show. The way she has nurtured me has been so special; I have learnt so many things from her, including how to conduct myself better on set. I have imbibed a lot of life lessons from her.

Also, my director (Hitesh Bhatia) allowed me to fly as an actor. Everyone worked hard towards making this show very special and that shows on screen. When you fall in love with a character — which is what happened with Raji — then it is half the battle won for you as an actor. With Raji, it was a gradual process of falling in love. As I played her, I started understanding different layers of her personality as well as her resilience, her ambition.... It may seem like a unidimensional sweet character on the surface, but Raji is a very strong, multilayered character... she has her own voice and she makes herself heard.

She is an ordinary girl in extraordinary circumstances. Despite that, did you find any commonalities with her?

Raji is a very different person from who I am. But because I was playing her, there were aspects of me as a person that seeped into her and vice-versa. Like her, I am very resilient. I do my own thing, I take my own decisions. I have built the career that I have completely on my own. There was no one guiding or supporting me.

But the way Raji reacts to certain situations is very different from how Shalini will. I had to balance that, and for that, I really had to first try and understand her on paper and see what parts of her I could possibly resonate with. Resilience, as I said, was one, and so was ambition. In the show, she is the one who runs the business. She has the gumption to stand up against her mother-in-law often and say that she will not do something because it doesn’t feel right to her. I am also like that.

She has quite a few challenging scenes, especially in the penultimate moments. Which was the toughest for you to pull off?

Honestly, just to be on set every day is a challenge... you never know what is going to happen next. I don’t over prepare before my shots. I sometimes leave things to see what happens, I go in with a blank slate.

I remember one day was particularly challenging and that was the day the horse was being shot. I am quite strong with anything, but I will invariably fall apart when I see animals reacting in a way that they shouldn’t. That day, everything was, of course, done with sensitivity and safety, but to see a giant horse get a shot of anaesthesia and just fall to the ground, ripped me to shreds. It was heartbreaking. I just kept asking: ‘I hope he is okay.’ Emotionally, that was the most challenging day for me.

How do you look at your career over the last year. Maharaj (with Junaid Khan and Jaideep Ahlawat) got you a lot of appreciation too...

I like a project, I do it and I move on to the next because I am always looking at newer experiences. And when people show love, like it has been for Maharaj and Dabba Cartel, it is the icing on the cake. I always hope, though, that everything I do, if it deserves it, gets its due and destiny.

Arjun Reddy came out eight years ago and though where whispers of misogyny then, they blew up when its Hindi remake, Kabir Singh, came out a few years later. Given the backlash, if you were offered Arjun Reddy today, would you play the character differently? In fact, would you do the film at all?

I would do the film, for sure. But I am a completely different person now. I keep changing at a rapid pace, I am not the same person as I was even last year. If I do Arjun Reddy today, I would approach it very differently. Back then, I was very new as an actor and I was figuring things out as I went along. There were a lot of contrasting emotions that I had to deal with while playing that character. But today, I am a very different person, personally and professionally, than what I was when I played Preeti.

So would you question your director, Sandeep Reddy Vanga, a lot more today on set?

I did ask questions even back then. I have always had my own voice. But if a director convinces me that a character is behaving in a way for a certain reason and I also believe in that conviction, I will go with it. Maybe today, the kind of questions I would ask him will be different. But if he still convinces me to a point where I know that this is what he feels about the character — it is his vision, after all and I am only playing a part — I will go with it. My morality doesn’t have to be the same as the morality of the character I am playing. That is why I am playing a character, I am not playing Shalini.

Honestly, there are a lot of permutations and combinations to all these things. I don’t think there is one set aspect to approaching a character or playing it.

A recent film or performance that made you go ‘wow?’

That would be Anora, which won many Oscars. I loved how Mikey Madison approached the character (Anora), how (director) Sean Baker shot the film.... I loved that film because it spoke to me, it is so different and has so many shades.

I am glad that now there is an attempt to show different shades of women on screen. I loved the drama, the humour, the whole Cinderella-inspired story and I love the gaze of the film. Whether you have been shot by a man or a woman, the gaze is very important for a woman. And that is what I was really impressed by in Anora. I hope I get to work with directors who have that gaze that looks at women through different layers.