What's considered ideal in Hollywood is completely different than anywhere else in the world. I don't think you can aspire to it, nor can I. Everybody is retouched, stretched, lengthened, slimmed and trimmed. I could look at a picture of myself from the past and think, 'Why don't I look like that now?' It's because I never have!

Given that I can't sing like Freddie Mercury, obviously I'm not going to pursue it as a career. What would be the point?

I don't have a big career plan. I just like to see how things come out, and I just try to keep going in different directions.

Job-wise, I did have a moment of panic that I should have been a doctor a few years ago, but I hate when people vomit.

I had white family members, black family members, white friends, black friends by the time I was 16.

I've had people in the family, male and female, impacted by heart disease. But people can prevent it.

I'm attracted to how fraught the parent-child relationship is, swerving so easily between love and hostility, with almost no plausible way to end, unless someone dies.

Unlike most youngsters who have school as their 'second home' where they meet and make friends, for me playtime has been at the Gopichand Badminton Academy in Hyderabad. When I am not playing a tournament, my days are spent at the Academy with my coaches, physiotherapists and colleagues, who are like family. We laugh and have so much fun.