Actress Shriya Saran, who features in Deepa Mehta's "Midnight's Children", says she had a "brilliant" experience working with the Canada-based Indian filmmaker, who played a perfect guide to her.

"Working with Deepa was a life changing experience. She is brilliant to work with. She is very driven and I felt very safe in her hands," Shriya, who earlier worked in Mehta-scripted "Cooking With Stella", told.

"She is very understanding and very sensitive. She's always there to guide you. Something very special about her is that every morning she comes and gives you a very warm hug," added the actress who is active in both Bollywood and southern cinema.

She is known for working in Tamil film "Shivaji: The Boss" and Bollywood film "Mission Istaanbul".

The movie is a big screen adaptation of Salman Rushdie's Booker Prize-winning novel of the same name.

The 30-year-old, who plays Parvati in the film, said: "Parvati is very a wonderful and strong character for any actor to play. She is one of the children born at the stroke of midnight, the moment India's independence was announced."

"She possesses magical powers. But she can't talk about her magic to anyone because if she does, she will turn into a witch," she added.

"Midnight's Children", which released Friday, also features Rajat Kapoor, Shabana Azmi, Anupam Kher, Ronit Roy, Satya Bhabha, Seema Biswas, Darsheel Safary, Shahana Goswami, Siddharth, Anita Majumdar, Kulbhushan Kharbanda and Soha Ali Khan.