I play Sapna in Harry Baweja's film Teesri Aankh. Of course, that's his usual name for heroines! I remember even in Qayamat my name was Sapna, and Urmila's (Matondkar) name in Diljale was Sapna -- so his heroines are always called Sapna!
Sapna is a regular, very normal girl. There's nothing very uncommon about her. It doesn't make it tougher or any simpler, but as soon as you have an understanding of the character, you can play it.
She's not somebody who's schizophrenic or somebody who's gone through trauma in her life or she's not somebody who's a serial killer. For those, you've got to change body language and mannerisms and things. In these cases, more often than not, you play the character the way you would play the situation yourself.
My Siskiyaan character required a deeper understanding. I had to graduate to a certain level to act in that film. I needed to look a certain way, act a certain way. I needed to figure out what her thinking would be like. Thankfully, it worked. There was a lot of appreciation as far as my acting was concerned. People began to take me very seriously after that. I got offered more roles, stronger roles.