Choti Sardarni, which recently took a 20 years generation leap, saw the exit of Anita Raj and Avinesh Rekhi. The show now has the lead actress Nimrit Kaur Ahluwalia playing the character of a grown-up Seher.
Nimrat recently revealed that emotionally it was very difficult to forget Meher. She also shared that the entire cast was in tears on the last day of shoot and she was the most affected as everyone else from the star cast was leaving. The actress further spoke about the challenges she's facing playing Meher and her daughter Seher simultaneously.
"I’ve played Meher for 2 years and I loved her. I am so close to the entire cast that it is very difficult to sort of disconnect immediately. There have been moments when I was shooting for Meher and work was simultaneously happening on Saher. I felt so helpless and wondered why this was happening? I didn’t want people to go. But I am sure that’s how everybody sitting on the top of the channel, the creative team, the producers, everybody feels the same. I also understand that when there is a beginning to a story there’s also an end to it. You can’t keep stretching it. The story we have introduced is a very fresh story, new point of view. I am still taking my time to let go of Meher. My excitement came in the day before yesterday when I had wrapped up the entire shoot of Meher. More than the excitement it was a kind of responsibility that kicked in. I realised that it’s just me who’s left here and I have these new people and a great story, so what do we do about this. Either I could sit here and mourn and not be focused or I can take on this responsibility which I am very grateful for. It speaks volumes of the trust and the faith that the makers have shown in me." she said.
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Nimrit feels that with Avinesh and Anita Raj's exit, the entire responsibility of the show is on her, "It’s fun, it is a new process and I am still letting it sink in but I am also very excited. I think the key to every show is the story. I was always convinced about playing Meher. And I know there’s so much going on on social media about the mixed reactions. I get comments saying I don’t love Meher, I don’t love Sarab and that I am not affected with the leap. I mean I’ve lived this character. When people did not know about the Meher, I was auditioning for it. I don’t want to prove it to anybody, but I do care a lot. I miss everyone so much. With Avinash and the entire cast being around me, I always felt the responsibility was equally divided and now it is straight up on me. When I say responsibility it’s not that anybody has put that on me, it’s self created."
She also talked about the things she learnt from Anita Raj and others in the last two years while working on the show, "Because of Choti Sardarni, bahut logon ke ghar chal rahe hain (so many people are employed)… who belong to different strata of the society. My technicians, my crew and people behind the camera are still the same. So there’s that responsibility that I’ve in my head. Then of course I got this opportunity to work with Anita ma’am, Puneesh sir, Avinesh, Dolly ma’am, I learnt a lot from all my seniors. The one thing I really appreciate about Anita ma’am is that she always kept the cast together. We would sit together, have lunch, converse and also spend time together. All this I’ve learnt from her and it is helping me now. All of a sudden from being a junior on the show, I’ve become the most senior. I am trying to get into the groove of it. I know that it is now my responsibility to be with my cast.
The actress is excited to work with senior actress Vibha Chibber, who trained her for 40 days before the launch of Choti Sardarni, "I feel so great that I am getting a chance to work with Vibha Chibber ma’am. I would like to share a very interesting thing. Before I started shooting for Meher’s role, I did a workshop with her for 40 days. Now, with the show I am getting a chance to work with my guru. That’s very exciting. I am so happy especially when I see the actors who are playing my siblings as they remind me of my younger days. It is fun to have new energies and vibe around you. It is so true that you become like the people around you. In the past two years, I became very mature, self aware. Now, I am just feeling that I am me. I had forgotten actually what 25-26 year old people do, because I was playing this mature character. Nimrit is experiencing that, this is how I am supposed to be and not grow up too quickly."
Speaking about the challenge of playing Meher and Seher simultaneously, Nimrit says, "It is very challenging. Because when you do TV and play a character everyday, you become like that. Whenever we take up a project, we get time to prepare for it. Like I said earlier, to play Meher, I did a workshop of 40 days to understand the character. That’s a prep you need to do as an actor. People have watched me playing different emotions in the last two years, now what's next? So that’s the challenge that I am loving. I like that I am getting a challenge to push myself, there is no time to prepare, there’s a telecast on head and there are expectations from the audience. We are not here to take Meher-Sarab’s place, it is a fresh story."
Nimrit revealed how the entire cast and crew was in tears on the last day of the shoot and how she was the most affected one, "We had the opportunity so nobody waited for it. We met the same day as it was Kevina’s birthday. We all met. I started crying and getting emotional from the time I learnt about the leap. I started mourning weeks in advance. I was getting affected the most because I knew everyone was going. It hit me before all of them. I would take my moments of feeling low and crying. Then we started using humour to cope with the emotional side. We started cracking jokes, we used it as a defence mechanism. And then the last day came, no matter how hard we tried, we just couldn’t stop crying whether it was the kids, senior actors, everybody had tears in their eyes. But I am happy because our story has not come to an end on a personal level. We are going to meet. I still speak to people every second-third day," she shared.
The actress also opened up about the mixed reactions on social media from Avinesh and her fans, who loved to see their pair on-screen, "I read comments and few of them feel I am behind this generation leap and everything. It’s very funny and I just feel amused. But I get it everybody’s sentiments and emotions are attached. My response to everyone would be that I am equally hurt like the fans. But I feel for me it is a little more difficult, I understand that the fans have lived this journey with us. We have seen so many ups and downs as a cast together. Be it telecast issues, health not being great to shooting during COVID times, we have seen it all. We have gone through everything, but we have managed to come out of it gloriously. There have been so many memories. I don’t think I need to prove anything about what I feel because that’s mine. Meher is mine and so is the love and affection for my cast whether it is the dhillons, gills, Sarab or the kids. I don’t take the comments on social media seriously. My job is to give my 100 percent to the role," concluded she.
Stay tuned to this space for more updates and gossips.
Credits: TOI
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