Shameen Khan discussed her role of Sajal in the hit drama series “Khuda Aur Mohabbat” season 3. She sat down with Fuchsia magazine and recalled the moment when she had first met the director who gave her a description of her character, she was left quite surprised:
“I was quite happy when I received the call because I felt like this would be my moment to shine. I had visited the director, Wajahat Hussain, who gave me a description of what my character would be and I was left very confused. I wondering if my character would have a purpose or a breakthrough throughout the series. But the director assured me that this would happen and told me to go home and read the script after which I can decide to take on the role or not.”
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Shameen said that she had gone home and read the script, and she had fallen in love with the character immediately because of her dialogues and the impactful relationship she had with the rest of the characters on screen. However the problem was that a lot of people began advising her not to take on the role of a “maid”, because she might be stereotyped into playing this role for the rest of her career:
“When I went home and picked up a pen and began to read the script, I began to fall in love with Sajal’s character once I began reading the scenes and her dialogues. However, my friends began warning me not to consider taking this role because she was a maid. ‘She’s a maid so you might be stereotyped into playing this role for the rest of your acting career’ they said. So this made me extremely double-minded. However, a friend then advised me that if I love the character and feel like it has an important impact, then I should take it. So I did.”
Shameen also elaborated on the ways she had built up on Sajal’s character like for instance, on her Punjabi accent, which Shameen was not fluent in so she sought out help from her friends and the director:
“I had never spoken in Punjabi before. So when I got the role, I reached out to one of my friends Shehryar who was a model and speaks in Punjabi fluently since he had lived in Lahore all his life. So I would send him the dialogues and ask him to send back me a voice note speaking in Punjabi, and I would then mold it according to the way I felt the character would speak it. The director, Sir Wajahat, was also immensely helpful in this process to understand the dialogue. He would go over the lines with me and he was very patient and understanding.”
You can watch the complete interview below:
