Javaria Saud sat down for an interview with The Independent to discuss her latest series on Urduflix titled “Aurat Gardi” which is about a headstrong female politician who takes on the world of politics which is entirely dominated by men.
Discussing on how she came upon the show “Aurat Gardi”, she recalled that she was tired of doing shows to which people were not paying any attention to and then the producers of the series reached out to her to play Shabnam
“I was tired of playing roles that were not making such an impact on screen, and then the people at Imax reached out to me and wanted me to play the role of Shabnam on “Aurat Gardi”. I went and I agreed to the part.”
On how she felt on the responses the trailer of the show received, as some people praised it while others were criticizing it, she said that she keeps in touch with the people who are sending her support and prayers:
“I believe that everyone has their own way of thinking, and as an artist we tend to get both positive and negative criticism for the things that we do. So for me the most important thing to focus on was my fans and the love and respect that they were sending me for my work. And to the people who were sending me hate, I would like to remind them that this was just a character, not a person I am playing in real life.”
On coming to her character as Shabnam bibi whom she regarded as a negative woman on the series, Javaria further shared her thoughts about the role:
“She is a negative woman who is sitting in a positive place and is getting her work done from there. There is something tragic that happened to her in her past which is why she is such an awful person now. I think that there are a lot of people who undergo tragic times and come out as good people, but then there are some who come out to be completely negative and she is one of them.”
Further coming on whether portraying a feminist politician as a negative person in a patriarchal society like Pakistan might further hurt the position of women, the actress responded:
“I only take this as a story and a character, although I feel like today we are making a big thing out of every small issue. I did not take inspiration from a real life person I only followed the script that the writer had given me and tried to portray it to my best abilities. We are only here to entertain our audiences and not to guide them on something.”
Javaria was also further questioned on her stance on Aurat March, Javaria had responded to this by saying:
“I don’t think that chanting slogans and picking up posters is enough to bring change and I think that Aurat March is not doing anything productive. If they do want to change the lives of women, they must go directly to the homes where women are being abused and mistreated and help them escape it. I notice that a lot of women involved in Aurat March are very well educated, so then I’ve never seen any results of their efforts. There are a lot of women who consistently protest for their future and they end up destroying their families. I think that’s wrong. If you’re married then you must take care of your family and then your future.”
You can watch the complete interview below:
