Alia Bhatt is currently dealing with a terrible case of food poisoning. While flying down to Mumbai from Amritsar, the actress had some airline food and it didn’t go down too well (does airline food ever go down too well?). She looks a little troubled and, to add to her woes, she has a rather packed day with several commitments to TV channels, magazines, and filmmakers.

Despite that, she’s bubbling with restless energy and sits in rapt attention — her face is so mischievous, you want to just watch kitten videos with her and giggle pointlessly. She has an unusually non-starry vibe — one that makes you feel she’s just a girl out of college, into the glamor world, but firmly detached, firmly chill.

Like she’ll go on to say later, there’s never a day off for a busy star. And busy she is. While Shaandaar may have swiftly disappeared from public consciousness, Udta Punjab has stayed and slayed. And up next is Gauri Shinde’s Dear Zindagi, the sequel to Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania, and Ayan Mukerji’s untitled superhero project with Ranbir Kapoor.

Over a cup of coffee at Dharma Productions’ new office in the Mumbai suburb of Andheri West, Alia Bhatt opens up, by her own admission, like never before.