Zoya Hussain: Waiting between two good projects is the toughest

Mumbai, Sep 16: She made her entry in Bollywood quite ‘silently’ as Zoya Hussain played the character of a mute girl in her debut film ‘Mukkabaaz’ in 2017. Since then there was no looking back for Zoya as she has been constantly working.

But the next big project that she has received immense appreciation for is her performance the web series ‘Grahan’. As her new project, an anthology titled ‘Ankahi Kahaniya’ is releasing, Zoya says the biggest challenge is to stay patient and motivated between two good projects.

Even though in last four years, the actress has appeared in other projects like ‘Teen Aur Aadha’, ‘Namdev Bhau: In Search of Silence’, ‘Laal Kaptaan’, ‘Haathi Mere Saathi’ Zoya shares how she stays motivated and set her parameters for choosing a project.

Zoya told IANS : “I think the toughest thing is to stay patient and motivated between projects but that is the choice you make as an actor. Thankfully, after my debut film ‘Mukkabaaz’ I have been working constantly. As a professional actor, it is important to keep on working, because which film will get what amount of visibility is really not in my hand.

“Our film ‘Mukkabaaz’ was not a commercial potboiler but it was a well-received film that travelled to international film festivals and we actors were appreciated for our work. My character Amrita Singh in ‘Grahan’ could have been a dream for any actor because it is a father-daughter relationship that has not been explored on-screen before, at the same time Amrita wears the uniform! But such character does not come to actors like me who are fairly new in the business often. So, what should an actor do? she keeps on working!” However, she said the lockdown was not easy for her to deal with.

“It was like a forced vacation I had to take when I was actually getting the work that I was longing to do! So, I was just trying to stay in a positive mindset, with a lot of gratitude that at least I am privileged enough to have all my basics in place, be it my food, a home to stay and work in the pipeline. I, therefore, focused on reading books to improve my knowledge in things that I did not know much about; at times I was also just eating, sleeping and talking nonsense with my childhood friends (laughs) but this is how we all deal with testing times I guess,” shared Zoya.

In the anthology ‘Ankahi Kahaniya’, Zoya shared screen space with Kunal Kapoor and Nikhil Dwivedi. The segment is directed by Saket Chaudhary.

Asked about what kind of character she looks forward to play and Zoya said, “I am open to experiment and work with good filmmakers. The script has to excite me really. Perhaps that is why in my debut film I played the character of a mute girl. I found that character quite fun and well-written even though it was an unconventional choice. I always wanted to work with Anurag Kashyap because he is such a fav filmmaker. Honestly speaking, I do not want to be an accessory in a film, I want to play a meaty character. Maybe in the future, a day will come when I will just look for a chance to be a piece of furniture in a frame, for fun! (laughs) That could also be an experiment but not for now!” ‘Ankahi Kahaniya’ releases on September 17 on Netflix.

(Arundhuti Banerjee can be contacted at arundhuti.b@ians.in)