I want to be the best actress in the world! I give every character I play my 100 per cent. I'm not the kind of person who says 'I want to be number one', I detest that number system. There are so many talented actors. Hard work being crystallised into 1, 2, 3 -- it's just not fair.

For me, 'ambitious' means to do good work. There is no point in doing three films at one go. It is better to do one thing better than three things 'okay'. I try to follow that. Besides, I've been lucky and things have gone well for me.

The media labels you 'bubbly' and 'cute'. As a result, do people except you to be effervescent all the time?

I got stuck with the 'bubbly cute girl' image after Dil Se.. and Soldier. So I did Sangharsh, which was very bang-on.

What about in person? People tend to expect the on-screen persona for real.

Exactly! Even the bubbliest girl can have bad days (laughs). The only thing is that those bad days don't get captured on cinema. Yeah, people expect me to be smiley and 'jokey' all the time. I am basically pretty happy-go-lucky by nature, very positive. But when I go through my own lows I like to be left alone.