Sanya Malhotra, who made her big-screen debut alongside Aamir Khan in Dangal, said she was ‘quite disappointed’ after learning that she was one of about 30 ladies picked for the film. She was, nevertheless, convinced that she would be cast in the part.

Dangal was directed by Nitesh Tiwari and told the story of wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat, who prepares his daughters Geeta and Babita to compete in the Commonwealth Games and help him achieve his dream of winning a gold medal for India. In the sports drama, Sanya played Babita Phogat.

In an interview with Mashable India, Sanya was asked how she manifested the role. “I think they did audition a lot of people. In fact, when I was shortlisted, I didn’t think they had shortlisted more than five. When I went there for the audition, there were 29-30 girls who were shortlisted and I was quite disappointed. But at the same time, I was quite positive that I am going to be there in the movie.

I don’t know why but this was my first audition for a film and I had so much confidence that no matter what, I will crack it. I don’t know, I had that feeling. Maybe my intuition was telling me that I am going to make it.”

Sanya revealed that she and Fatima Sana Shaikh, who played her older sister Geeta Phogat in Dangal, used scripting unintentionally to realize their aspirations.

“Now we know it’s called scripting but back then, it was like, ‘Okay, fine, we want something and we are going to write it out’, and we used to sit together and manifest it that someone from us should get the role. We are quite happy that we got it,” she said.