After playing breezy, lovey-dovey role in her debut movie ‘Rockstar’, the gorgeous Nargis Fakhri has got down to some serious, rough-tough work with her second one ‘Madras Cafe’ - an experience which was not a cake-walk for the young actress.

Nargis, who plays an international journalist in the film, had to do a lot of research to fit into her role. "Identifying myself with Jaya, who is an international journalist in the film, was a little difficult as a lot of work had to be done to feel connected to Jaya." She looked up videos, read articles to fit in as Jaya and to do justice to the role. After having read so many articles and gone through the research, she is absolutely amazed and in awe by the work put in by journalists. She said, "The way I look at journalists today is so different than how I used to before Madras Cafe."

Nargis Fakhri also faced a tough time while shooting the jungle sequences. She fell sick with a high fever while at the shoot as one of the sequences shows her treading the jungle in the rain. The scene took longer than expected and Nargis had to stay in her wet costume for long hours. However, she refused to use a body double for any of her scenes and continued the shoot in high fever. The actress is all charged up to make a comeback with ‘Madras Cafe’ in which she is playing the role of an international journalist who goes to Sri Lanka for covering the civil war and helps Agent Vikram, played by John Abraham in his mission.

Based on the much controversial Sri Lankan civil war of the 1980s, many sequences of the film have been shot in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The film was shot in the jungles and the task was not an easy one.

On a whole, Nargies admitted that her journey through ‘Madras Cafe’ has been interesting and adventurous with a lot of learning.

Directed by Shoojit Sircar, 'Madras Cafe' is scheduled to release nationwide in theatres on 23rd August. The film is co-produced by JA Entertainment, Viacom 18 Motion Pictures and Rising Sun Films.