"The hardest thing in this film was pretending that Tabu is my mother; she does not look like my mother from any angle, she is like a friend. I enjoyed the days we spent together in the film," she said in response to a query about the experience of working with Tabu in "Fitoor".
"She is one of the warmest people and who is so down to earth. She is a phenomenal actress so, whenever you are in front of her, you should remember you should not get lost in her performance but, to contribute to it. We have been fortunate she was gracious enough to step in," added Katrina.
Tabu stepped into Rekha's shoes after she decided to make an exit from the film, which is an adaptation of Charles Dickens classic novel "Great Expectations".
About her role in the film, Katrina said: "For me the most important thing was to try and understand this girl's (her character) mind... she has always been a complicated character is she manipulative, is she like that? .. for whatever reasons ...we spent a lot of time discussing trying to give a life our interpretation to this character."
Also starring Aditya Roy Kapur, Aditi Rao Hydari, Lara Dutta and Rahul Bhatt, "Fitoor" will hit the theaters on February 12.