Mumbai, Jul 9 (IANS): Actress Ira Dubey says she was pleasantly surprised and excited when Agneya Singh, director of her upcoming film "M Cream" offered her to play a character which was different from her "type".

"I thought he would definitely ask me to play Maggie as she was more glamorous, vivacious, more outgoing, more confident and more sexy character. So I was pleasantly surprised when he told me that he wanted me to play Jay. I was so excited that first time someone viewed me against the type," Ira told IANS.

Ira had played a glamorous role in Sonam Kapoor starrer "Aisha".

But in "M Cream", her character is more silent and focused. The film's trailer itself described her character -- who is doing a case study on political refugees -- as a "student activist, idealist, opinionated, earnest".

"If people feel that I am sitting in this glamorous, south Bombay household... that does not mean anything. We are actors and we can transform ourselves. Theatre gives me the opportunities to do something extremely different... I've played an Iraqi woman, I have played a small town girl from Dharwad in Karnataka, I have played all kinds of characters in my theatre work and I'm waiting for the opportunity to do that in my film work," Ira said.

She felt Singh saw something in her "that was very refreshing and I was very happy that he offered me the role of Jay because she is a silent, very strong, very resilient character".

"M Cream", which has won awards at numerous international film festivals, is about an exciting road trip of four youngsters to discover M Cream, a magical form of the drug hashish. The film, produced by Vindhya Singh under the banner Agniputra Films, releases on July 22.