Kalki Koechlin

Being a feminist means asking for equality. But people take it the other way at times. It is looked down upon is because it is seen as man-hating. But, feminism is a really crazy idea that suggests men and women are equal.

We need better and stronger roles for female actors.

We don't expect someone in a bikini to stand up for women's rights; we only expect a girl in an 'NGO outfit' to speak about it. It's as much as the right of the girl in the bikini to talk about it as a woman in a kurta. We need to embrace that multiplicity.

I consider myself as a human being with lots of ups and downs and learning from a lot of failures before I can succeed.

I like Kerala a lot. The beautiful beaches there, the backwaters - I have good memories of the place.

My mom was very worried when I was starting off my career in the film industry. She never told me to not take up acting, but she would always tell me to have a backup plan so that if nothing works out in the acting career, then I can switch.

I am always open to any film from any place, given the role and the script is interesting.

At home, my parents were quite old, so the surrounding was of elder people. There was no noise. Reading books was encouraged; TV was not encouraged, so I was the geeky, studious type of girl.

I was born in Pondicherry. Both my parents are French. They met in Pondicherry in the '70s, got married, and stayed back in India.

When I have to be in public, I can't be in a bad mood.

There is always going to be depth and layers to people and that's what interests me in a character: when there is some problem to overcome, when there is a complication to understand in a person.

When I was studying in London, I worked part-time as a waitress. I was teaching drama to kids. I did a lot of odd jobs to pay for my studies.