I love adding little quirks to the character I am playing: Meghna Malik

“I have always been selective; you can corroborate that from my body of work till date. Also, I don’t take up anything and everything,” asserted Meghna Malik (Ammaji from ‘Na Aana Is Desh Laado’), on a recent visit to Lucknow. Qualifying her second statement, she gave the example of ‘Ammaji’ Season 2. “I got an offer to play Ammaji again but after a few months they lost track and abrupt changes started taking place in the script, so I just left the show. So, I am every bit a selective actor,” she said.

Malik said she loves getting into the skin of her characters. “As an actor, I have this childlike curiosity of creating characters by observing people. So, I work hard on grasping the depth of the role I have to play and then love to add little peculiarities to the character. Characters that challenge me are my favourite ones otherwise it can be very boring to play the same charcter for such a long time on TV.”

Talking about television in general, the actor felt that it has gone stale in the last 15 years. “The content is a big let-down, though it still has a large following. There was a time when we had shows like ‘Malgudi Days’, ‘Yeh Joh Hai Zindagi’, ‘Karamchand’ and now, just look at the kind of stories being written and told. That’s the reason I have turned to theatre and the digital medium along with film. Trust me, if this trend continues, soon the digital platform will completely take over TV,” Malik said.

The ‘Chalte Chalte’ and ‘Taare Zameen Par’ actor was in Lucknow for the shoot of her upcoming film ‘Saher’ with Pankaj Kapoor and Sharib Hashmi, “Lucknow is wonderful city to be in. When I was offered ‘Saher’, I couldn’t say no, because other than working with such young and professional team, I was given a chance to be in Lucknow and shoot here for the very first time. The food is exceptional here: the paan, biryani, all are too irresistible for anybody. And trust me, what a city it is. The locations and people are all too good. I’m thankful to the team of ‘Sehar’, including producer Piiyush Singh, director Munzir, as they are a treat to work with. And then, I was getting to work with Pankaj Sir again. I too went to National School of Drama and I feel proud to say that Pankaj Kapur too honed his skills there. We have always looked up to him as juniors. He is an institution in himself, a living legend. And as an actor, you learn so much from him.”

Malik has also completed a web series ‘Bandish Bandits’, a musical for Amazon Prime along with a play called ‘Mahabharat’.