Nadia Hussain on playing her most challenging character

A still from Nadia Hussain’s upcoming drama serial. PHOTO: FILE

KARACHI: 

From a perfect pout to paan stained lips, model-actor Nadia Hussain has taken up the most intersting of roles in her latest acting venture. It is rare for a model to realise that her career is one that won’t last too long, especially once she has reached the age of 40. Nadia Hussain is one such Pakistani model, who thinks likewise and has always shown interest in venturing out and doing other businesses.

Interestingly, she will be acting out a supporting role in a drama serial, Mitho aur Appa. She asserted that this was certainly a difficult character to play out: “It was something different, that’s why I accepted to act in it. In this play, the girl belongs to a low-income neighbourhood, I am playing a girl from that background. She is seen as a flirtatious kind, who is making things work for her much-older husband and herself; I myself wanted to give it a shot and do it and that’s what I have done.”

This role however, is  very different from her refined personality and on that she commented saying, “This was a very challenging role for me. The production house asked me to bring my own collection of saris, but I didn’t have those kinds of  gaudy saris and eventually they had to provide me with them. The role itself is very loud, my make-up is loud, it is not polished; it has been done very roughly. I had to eat paan to a great extent. Paan, was something I hadn’t envisaged it in my dreams that I would be eating so much, but I did. Can you imagine? That too, with chaaliyah. She is seen as a very crass and raw person who is an unkempt filmi person to begin with.”

If her character is appreciated by the masses, then she looks forward to doing more of such interesting roles.

After having seen all that glitterati, when the models start fading away from the limelight, they opt for the screen. Hussain was asked if this is the case because television is an emotionally and economically satisfying alternate to modelling on the ramp, Hussain rdenied this, saying: “I have been  on the television screen for years; it’s not now that it is happening. It is emotionally satisfying, but you need to prove your acting skills. There have been models in Pakistan who have been good at modelling per se but were not liked much due to their acting spree on TV screen. TV is a different kind of a medium, the more exposure you have, the more work you get.”

With all this going on for her, has modeling then taken a back seat? Hussain wasn’t shy enough to admit that it certainly has, for one, she is not participating in PFDC, this year, because she was informed at the 11th hour about it. She commented on the profession that earned her fame to a great degree: “I will continue, but for how long? This business that is underway and soon to begin, is more long-lasting; I believe this is the perfect time for me to venture in this business which is more of a substantial work. My business will take priority.”

Since so much is up her sleeve, how will she be able to maintain and juggle work and family life, on this she commented saying, “Meticulously. I am planning things properly. I have my husband’s and family’s support behind all of this. Let’s see how things are going to be and how I will manage; only time can tell.”