Nimrat Kaur is one of the most versatile actors in the industry today, but her path to stardom wasn’t without its hurdles. After the massive global success of the 2013 film The Lunchbox, which premiered at Cannes and travelled to festivals like TIFF, the actor found herself being offered the same type of role repeatedly. Nimrat revealed that she was flooded with scripts featuring characters described as trapped, unhappy, or lonely homemakers. Determined to avoid being typecast, she fought tooth and nail to reject these projects, choosing to wait for the right opportunities instead of repeating a performance that had already been beautifully captured.
The actor clarified that the perceived gap in her filmography was never a calculated career move, but rather a result of her busy shooting schedules for international and domestic projects. Following the whirlwind success of The Lunchbox, she immediately jumped into filming the hit series Homeland, which kept her occupied for months, followed by a year-long commitment to the Akshay Kumar starrer Airlift. Nimrat noted that her journey in the industry has been a lesson in changing perceptions; while she was once told she looked “too western” for Indian roles during her modelling days, the success of Ritesh Batra’s film completely shifted the industry’s view of her range.
Preparing for the role of Ila required a deep, personal commitment that went beyond standard acting techniques. Nimrat shared that she intentionally let go of vanity for the part, gaining weight and skipping professional hair and makeup to embody the character’s quiet isolation. She drew inspiration from women she observed while growing up in small cities, even working closely with the art director to set up a kitchen that felt lived-in and authentic. Reflecting on her experience with the late Irrfan Khan, she shared that despite their iconic on-screen chemistry, the two barely interacted on set, as their characters only crossed paths in a single, fleeting moment in a cafe.