Kriti Sanon Says ‘Mimi’ and ‘Do Patti’ Changed How She Protects Her Mental Health as an Actor

Kriti Sanon has spent years describing herself as an actor who could separate reel emotions from real life. Her experiences on Mimi and Do Patti, however, appear to have changed that belief.

In a recent interview, Sanon said she once assumed the characters she played did not follow her home. Working on two of her most emotionally demanding films made her reconsider that assumption.

“Before Mimi and Do Patti, I used to believe that the characters I played never affected me in real life,” she said, adding that she later realised roles can leave a subconscious impact even when an actor does not immediately notice it.

For Sanon, the lesson is now about learning how to deliberately disengage from a character instead of assuming that separation happens automatically.

Kriti Says the Impact Can Surface Days Later

Sanon explained that the emotional effect of a role does not necessarily become obvious the moment filming ends.

According to her, changes can surface days later through mood, reactions or the way an actor feels. That delayed response made her recognise the importance of consciously “switching off” from a character.

She also pointed to the reverse challenge.

Actors sometimes arrive on set carrying their own personal emotions but still have to perform something completely different. Sanon recalled occasions when she was emotionally low in her personal life yet had to shoot comedy scenes and appear carefree on camera.

That constant movement between personal emotion and fictional emotion is what she now sees as one of the more psychologically demanding aspects of acting.

This Is a Significant Shift From What Kriti Said Earlier

The most interesting context is that Sanon has been discussing “switching off” for years but not always in the same way.

In a 2017 Filmfare interview, she described herself as a “switch-on-switch-off person” and said she generally preferred responding to what her character was feeling rather than mining painful personal memories for a performance. She specifically said she did not want to become emotionally overwhelmed by playing a poignant character.

Two years later, while promoting Arjun Patiala, she again spoke about the need for performers to switch between their private lives and their roles. She explained that actors might be experiencing tension or stress personally but still be required to perform comedy convincingly once the camera starts rolling.

At that stage, switching off was largely described as a professional skill.

Her more recent comments suggest something different: she now believes the process may require active emotional recovery even after the performance is finished.

‘Mimi’ Was an Important Turning Point

Mimi appears to have been one of the projects that challenged Sanon’s previous approach.

In an earlier interview discussing the film, she recalled shooting an emotionally intense scene in which she unexpectedly found herself unable to stop crying after the director called cut.

She said she had tried to prepare herself emotionally before the scene and was surprised by how strongly the feeling remained after the performance ended.

The role ultimately became one of the defining performances of her career.

The Government of India’s official announcement for the 69th National Film Awards records Sanon as the joint winner of Best Actress for Mimi, alongside Alia Bhatt for Gangubai Kathiawadi.

That recognition makes Mimi important not just creatively but also in understanding why Sanon may have continued pursuing more emotionally layered material afterwards.

‘Do Patti’ Took That Emotional Process Further

Sanon’s reference to Do Patti is equally significant.

The Netflix thriller placed her in a dual role as twin sisters in a story involving secrecy, violence, emotional trauma and an attempted-murder investigation. Netflix officially describes the film as a dark thriller centred on twin sisters and a police investigation.

The film also marked Sanon’s debut as a producer through Blue Butterfly Films, giving her responsibility for the project beyond her acting performance.

In a separate Filmfare interview, Sanon said that during Do Patti she again used emotionally difficult personal memories while performing and later realised that doing so was affecting her mental state rather than merely helping the scene. She said a therapist advised her not to repeatedly revisit painful memories in that way.

That earlier account provides useful context for her 2026 comments: the need to “switch off” is not an abstract idea she has suddenly introduced, but something she has connected directly with her working process.

Kriti Has Spoken Publicly About Therapy Too

Sanon has previously discussed seeking professional help rather than presenting emotional resilience as something actors should simply handle on their own.

In a Filmfare conversation focused on mental health, she spoke about therapy, emotional scenes and the risk of repeatedly drawing from painful real-life experiences when performing.

Her comments also fit with a broader pattern in her interviews about needing solitude when emotionally overwhelmed.

Earlier in 2026, Sanon said that when she is in a particularly bad mood, she often prefers to be left alone for some time rather than immediately talking through what she is feeling.

Taken together, these remarks present a more specific picture than a generic celebrity message about “self-care.” Sanon is talking about emotional boundaries around the mechanics of acting itself.

Why ‘Switching Off’ Matters in an Actor’s Job

Acting regularly requires performers to create emotions on demand and then return to ordinary life after the scene ends.

For light material, that transition may be relatively straightforward. More emotionally demanding roles can involve grief, fear, violence, trauma or memories that performers use as part of their preparation.

Sanon’s own experience suggests she no longer believes professional discipline automatically protects an actor from those emotions.

The change is especially notable because she previously identified strongly with being able to switch between her own life and her characters.

Her current position is more nuanced: actors may need both the ability to enter difficult emotional spaces and the discipline to consciously leave them.

The Celebrity Hour Take

What makes Kriti Sanon’s latest remarks meaningful is the evolution in her thinking.

Years ago, she described “switching on and off” almost as one of her strengths as a performer. Mimi and Do Patti appear to have complicated that confidence. The lesson she now describes is that an actor can intellectually know a character is fictional while still carrying part of the emotional experience afterwards.

That distinction matters because conversations around acting often romanticise total immersion as proof of commitment. Sanon’s experience offers a more practical counterpoint: a performance does not necessarily become better simply because an actor repeatedly exposes herself to personal pain.

For Sanon, protecting emotional boundaries increasingly appears to be part of the craft rather than something separate from it.

Sources & Verification

This report was prepared using Kriti Sanon’s August 2026 interview about emotional well-being, her earlier Filmfare interviews discussing her acting process and therapy, a 2019 PTI interview on switching between personal and professional emotions, Netflix’s official Do Patti material and the Government of India’s National Film Awards record.

The Celebrity Hour independently cross-checked the central theme against interviews spanning nearly a decade. Those earlier statements establish a clear evolution: Sanon once described herself as naturally able to switch in and out of roles, while her later experiences with Mimi and Do Patti led her to acknowledge that emotionally demanding characters can have a delayed subconscious effect.