Used to actors sleepwalking through inane roles and equally bad portrayals without any homework?

Not so for Amisha Patel, who devoured books to get into her character for "Mangal Pandey - The Rising". Amisha enacts the role of a widow during the British Raj, and is paired opposite a British soldier.

The actress read many books about the period and considers William Dalrymple's "White Mughals" as a reference point. But those close to her insist it is nothing new for her since she is the rare film star who is well read and a gold medallist in economics.

Says Amisha: "I was fascinated when I read 'White Mughals' because it talks about those times. It was a kind of reference point in terms of sketching the character, in term of characterisation."

She confessed that Aamir Khan and Ketan Mehta helped all through the film's shooting. Perhaps she was even inspired into research by Aamir, a notorious perfectionist when it comes to portraying his characters?