What's common between Ali Fazal, Vijay Varma and Vicky Kaushal? It's "Mirzapur" star Shweta Tripathi, who counts the three actors among her favourite co-stars with whom acting becomes a sport.

While she starred with Kaushal in her feature film breakthrough "Masaan" (2015), the actor shares screen space with Fazal and Varma in the superhit web series "Mirzapur".

Tripathi also praised her "Gone Kesh" co-star Jitendra Kumar and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who worked with the actor in "Haraamkhor".

"Working with Nawaz bhai was like a workshop, the way he talked, the way he respected me... My favourites are Ali Fazal, Vicky, Jitu, Vijay Varma and it's fun because acting is actually like playing a sport. Whatever you get, it's fun to do the batting or bowling," she told PTI in an interview here.

Tripathi also admires Alia Bhatt, Konkona Sen Sharma, Tabu and Ratna Pathak Shah.

"I love Alia Bhatt, I think she is daring, she is at it non-stop, she will do 'Humpty Sharma', she will also do 'Jigra' and she is doing that very right. She does the commercial work and the popular, and she always delivers. I find her inspiring and I obviously love Konkona and Tabu ma'am and Ratna Pathak Shah." The actor, whose father was a bureaucrat and mother a teacher, said her family is "surprised" by her success.

"None of us thought of acting as a full-time career. My mother has been a teacher, my sister is a headmistress. I come from a very studious family but I also feel I wanted to be a lawyer because I wanted to make a change within the society. As an actor, I can do that even more now because of the popularity. I can have more eyes and ears," added Tripathi, a fashion communications graduate from NIFT Delhi.

While she wanted to pursue law, Tripathi said her "genius" father was sure her calling was the creative arts.

"He was also insisting that I should sit for NIFT and I really enjoyed taking its entrance exam. What I am chasing even today is that it should be fun. Whatever work you do, if it is fun, you will at least try to do your best in that moment." Tripathi said she imagined the NIFT campus would be quite like the ones shown in Bollywood movies like "Main Hoon Na" where students will sing and dance to "Chale Jaise Hawayein Sanan Sanan". It was anything but.

"NIFT was competitive and I am so grateful for that because that really got me in line. If you want to do anything, you have to work hard and that comes from within. No one had to tell me.

"And then I went to Bombay, worked in a newspaper. I was a photo editor there and I am happy I was there because as an actor, it is important to understand what happens behind the scenes." It was during her graduation years at NIFT Delhi that she told her father about her acting aspirations.

"One day when we were drying clothes on the roof, I told my father that I want to pursue acting and dad being the intelligent man that he is and knowing my personality type, he didn't say no. He said 'If you want to do anything, you have to study'. NIFT was a four-year course and I was already in my third year at the time. But, he gave me the option to leave it and apply (for some acting course)" she recalled.

The actor said she decided to complete her graduation course. She would go to college in the morning and attend workshops curated by theatre veteran Amal Allana in the evening.

"I still didn't know what would be the next step. As luck would have it, I went to Bombay and I started my own theatre group there. Then the show for Disney 'Kya Mast Hai Life' happened and now I am sitting here," she added.

Going forward, Tripathi said she doesn't want to restrict her career to a certain country or language.

"My goal is film festivals, I love it because during 'Masaan', when we went for the first time... (Hollywood stars like) Jake Gyllenhaal and Zoe Kazan were there... The energy there is so much fun. I want to travel the world with my stories. We feel like the perception of India is of one type, I want to change that." The actor said her stylist has been asking her to start doing international work for the last 10 years but Hollywood is "cutthroat".

Fazal, whose international career boasts titles like "Victoria and Abdul" and "Kandahar", and Adarsh Gourav of "The White Tiger" fame keep giving "200-300 auditions" and then something materialises, she added.

"But I feel awareness is growing... We have to keep trying. Maybe our number won't come but the ones who come after us might get it." Tripathi, who is set to venture into production, said she one day hopes to do a film like "Jojo Rabbit", director Taika Waititi's anti-hate satire.

Set against the backdrop of World War II, the 2019 film follows a young German boy called Jojo who finds out that his mother is hiding a Jewish girl in their home.

"I remember when the movie ended I felt like somebody punched me in my stomach and I didn't want to talk to anybody because I was so overwhelmed. These are the kinds of stories I want to tell. The ones that might be simple but shake you up so much that you feel like doing something," she said.

The actor's show "Yeh Kaali Kaali Aankhein" season two is currently streaming on Netflix.

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