INTERVIEW WITH SAANIA SAEED

Q. You have always been a thinking man’s actress. Comment.
A. Well, thank you! It’s a very hard-earned reputation and I enjoy and respect it. Although I see it just as a term I have come across while reading stuff about myself. But if that is so, I think that is how it should be, shouldn’t it? I mean actors should make one think and if people feel that way about me, I’m flattered.
Q. Having said that and while you are known for meaningful characters, of late it seems that your caliber is being compromised.



A. Do you really think so? Secondly, what is meaningful is also questionable as only talking about a certain aspect of struggle in a woman’s life and in a certain way is not the only thing that is meaningful.
As an actor there aren’t many roles being written and I can only choose from what is being offered to me… I can’t create them myself. Let me ask you: do you have any role in mind that was done by someone else that should have been done by me? The word compromise could be coined for my work in Jhumka Jaan where we were short on time, the script kept changing while we were shooting which made me demand a bound script or else. But with the kind of limitations that we work in… no this is not an excuse for bad work but I still gave my hundred-and-one per cent to that project.
Q. So is Sania the actress stuck in a rut today?
A. I stick by the rule of one play at a time but there are many actresses whose dramas run on different channels at the same time. Is it my fault that when Jhumka Jaan was on air another channel chose to repeat 2004’s Thori Si Mohabaat around the same time? Or when Ghost was on air, Shayad Kay Bahar Aaye and Aur Zindagi Badalti Hai was repeated by the same channel which I did way back in 1999? Of late I haven’t done any serials so nothing will be going on air till next year.
And what is all this talk about “suit nahi kiya?” If I did the kind of roles that people think suit me, they would still say that “yaar, she is not a versatile actress.” I have nothing to say to them.
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