To understand her character from 'Zero' better, here's what Anushka Sharma did and we are in awe of her

Anushka Sharma has left no stone unturned to get into the skin of her character in her upcoming film Zero- Aafia, a scientist with cerebal palsy.

The focused actress, for the role, put herself through a rigorous three-month prep and worked with two professional trainers.

Even the film's director, Aanand L Rai helped Anushka in understanding the role and her character better.

After prepping for three months, Anushka Sharma gave her first shot and brought the filmmaker’s vision alive. 

In fact, it seems like Aanand is extremely happy that the actress has breathed so much life into a character that he had written and shaped.

The Sui Dhaaga: Made In India actress said, “I understood the challenge that I was going to face as an actor while playing this role. That is what excited me towards the role. If I were able to pull it off, I would have accomplished something. So I wanted to do it the right way and represent this correctly. Anand Sir and Himanshu had already researched a lot with doctors (about this condition) when they came to me with the film and had sketched out my character accordingly. I understood their brief and went with their vision and met with the doctors."

Apart from this, Anushka too had to do a lot of research on her part to portray the role of Aafia as per the director's vision. 

She said, as quoted by Bollywoodlife.com, “I also worked with an occupational therapist and audiologist who helped me understand what physical limitation my character would have and how my condition would impact my speech.”

She further explained, “The difficult part in this was that I had to voluntarily create an involuntary movement that happens to my character because of my condition. While I had to focus on the dialogues, I also had focus on the emotion of the scene, which was difficult. So, in the beginning, I would ask for some extra takes so that I could get it right because I wanted to make sure that I was doing it correctly."

Anushka Sharma also has spent long hours on the wheelchair to get into the mindset of Aafia. 

“With time I started to understand it better- staying on the wheelchair the whole time I was on set and for three months before as I worked with the occupational therapist and audiologist. I did all these to understand the confinements one feels when one has to spend a lifetime on a wheelchair. I think all this practice helped in understanding the condition of the character well and the vision that Anand L Rai had for the role I have tried to do it to the T,” she said.

Starring Shah Rukh Khan, Anushka Sharma and Katrina Kaif, Zero is slated to release on December 21.