Actor Abhay Deol, who has now made a strong foothold in mainstream cinema after doing well in films with offbeat and alternative subjects, says he likes to relate to the characters that he plays on screen.

"I relate with all my characters. With that, I mean that there should be something in the character that I feel I relate to. For example, in 'Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!', I related to Lucky's ambition because I'm ambitious too. In 'Dev D', the character's stubbornness and his vulnerability is something I could relate to.

"Similarly I related to my character in 'Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara' because it's a very real character, " Abhay told.

The 35-year-old's upcoming films include "Singularity" and "Shanghai".