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At home away from home
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Pakistani stage and television actor Sania Saeed feels at home in India
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Photo: S. Subramanium
Woman power Sania Saeed
Back in Pakistan, she is known for her serious, quality work on television and theatre alike — works of substance that speak for a cause. You, therefore, expect to see someone quiet and sober, but when you meet this bubbly 30-something, you re
alise your assumptions were wrong. The acclaimed theatre personality and TV actress from Karachi, Sania Saeed, is so unlike her screen image. Unperturbed and full of life, she makes herself comfortable on the lawns of Vithalbhai Patel House in the Capital on a warm morning and walks down memory lane. “India is also like a homecoming to me, as most of my family members live in Delhi. My paternal grandparents live in Old Delhi, so do some relatives from my maternal side. I find it funny when someone says the culture is different across the border,”says Sania sipping herbal lemon tea.
Social cause
Her theatrical and television ventures, more often than not, speak of the untold struggle of a woman in professional and personal spheres. They deal with various political and social causes and their consequences on the common man. Serials such as Jhumka Jaan, currently on air, Zara Muskurao To, Humen Tumse Pyar Kitna, Suno Na, Aahat and Ek thi Mehru, are just a few examples. Her talk shows, Sehar Honay Ko Hai, Hawwa Kay Naam and Maa dealt with women’s issues. “I cannot work if I don’t believe in it or cannot justify what I am doing. I would want to portray things in a better light, especially in the case of women. It is not about whether my character is negative or positive but what the complete picture depicts,” is her mindset. “I keep telling people I have made a career out of crying,” she says in a lighter vein.
Ask her to comment on the Indian television scenario, and Sania gives you an honest opinion. “I think we portray our women in a better light compared to the soaps in India. I wouldn’t want to name them, but some of the serials are horrible. Women are portrayed either as either murderers or pativratas. Why do we want our women to become devis? What mindset are we trying to project?”
Her approach to work has a lot to do with her upbringing, with a lot of political and social issues being discussed at home. Sania’s first stint in theatre was at the age of 10 with Dastak theatre, where she was part of plays on democracy and opposed to dictatorship. “It was the period of Zia-ul-Haq when there was martial law. At that time there were no actors and it was only the volunteers who had to act. Whenever they needed a child artist they would call me. More than acting, I used to enjoy the atmosphere,” she recalls.
Over time, Dastak withered and she joined hands with a couple of likeminded people to start a theatre group, Katha, in the early 1990s. “We used to work with a community in their vicinity for months at a stretch and conduct workshops and plays. But we are finding it difficult to sustain it due to lack of funds,” explainsSania. Her shift from theatre to television was because “theatre is not commercially viable in Pakistan.”
“I don’t remember being paid for any of my plays since the first,” she says. But cinema, she is clear, is not her cup of tea, “Films in Pakistan haven’t evolved like Bollywood.”
Sania is here to to be part of the 19th Safdar Hashmi Memorial function to be held on January 1.
MANGALA RAMAMOORTHY
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