Ridhima Sud may have played a coy girl in her Bollywood debut as Ranveer Singh's fiancee in Dil Dhadakne Do, but in real life the Delhi-cum-Gurgaon girl is vivacious and full of energy. In a chat with us at her Gurgaon apartment, Ridhima talks about her love for Delhi, and her experience of working with established actors in her very first film.

I am proud to be a Delhi girl

Ridhima has been staying in Mumbai with her brother for work, and whenever she gets the time, the first thing she does is come home. "People generally forget their roots for the sake of mingling in the industry, but I am a typical Delhi girl at heart and will always be. If someone says I am a Mumbai girl, I correct them by saying I'm a Delhi girl and proud to be one. I like Mumbai, but I don't love it. The major difference between the two cities is that Delhi is very community-based and in Mumbai you are on your own. Here, everyone from your chachi to mami keeps intruding in your personal matters, but Mumbai offers more freedom and privacy. So, for me, it is a perfect balance as I get the best of both sides. When I am not working, I am home," Ridhima says.

For me, Delhi and Gurgaon are same. Only the postal codes are different

Ridhima's family recently moved from Chhatarpur to Golf Course, but for her, Delhi and Gurgaon are no different. "My family moved here just six months back. We had a big house in Chhatarpur, and after my brother and I moved to Mumbai, it was becoming difficult for my parents to take care of the house. But relocating to Gurgaon hasn't made much of a difference. For me, Gurgaon is Delhi. I don't differentiate between the two. They just have different postal codes," Ridhima says.

I hardly partied in my school days

For Ridhima, school was all work and no play. "I've done my schooling fror DPS, RK Puram. It was a nerd factory! I wasn't a bookworm exactly, and was a part of the basketball team, drama society and debating society. I barely had a social life. My upbringing has been very strict, so party ka toh sawaal hi nahin tha. I would only go to my friends' place or they would come to mine," she says.

Even after studying economics at NYU, I knew art was my true calling

Even after a double degree from New York University and an internship at Wall Street Journal, Ridhima says she was pretty sure she didn't belong there. Art was her first love. Ridhima says, "In the American education system, you get three months of summer break and winter breaks too. So, whenever I came here, I started doing advertisements and that kind of sowed the seed in me that I wanted to get into arts. I always had an artistic inclination. Even though I was studying economics and politics, my course was such that I chose many electives related to cinema or art. In fact, I did an internship at Wall Street, too. That was the time when I was completely sure that I didn't want it. It's really nice on paper that you work for Wall Street and earn a lot of money. But it wasn't who I am... I decided to give films a shot."

My dad threw money at me to stop me from doing films

Coming from a Punjabi family without any connections in Bollywood, Ridhima took her family by surprise when she told them that she wanted to do films. "When I told my parents that I wanted to act, they thought I was joking. My dad was like, 'You want to go to Europe for summers or buy an expensive bag or anything else?' He was literally throwing money at me to stop me. He was like, 'such an amazing life you have beta, why do you want to struggle and ghisso your chappals in Bollywood.' But at the back of their minds, they knew it was in my genes. My parents are self-made and come from a humble background, so they knew if I had made up my mind, nothing can stop me," she says.