Mira Sethi was a guest on the show “Something Haute” where she opened up about her character Gul on “Chupke Chupke” and how she brought the character to life on the series. When asked about how she decided to take on her character in the beginning, she said that she had only received four episodes and had to make a quick decision because the episodes were still being written:
“I had only received four episodes of the show and I had to make a quick decision about whether I wanted to sign up or not because we quickly had to go into shooting. When I read them, I did think initially that Gul was a very strict character, but it was afterwards when I came to observe that she was a very cruel woman.”
Mira also elaborated on how tough of a task it was to bring Gul to life on the show since she was the sole villain on the series while every one else would be doing comedy. She opened up about the long discussions she had with Danish Nawaz, the director, about Gul’s body language and way of speaking:
“Danish Nawaz the director had to take me to the sides often because he and I had a very different idea of what Gul was suppose to be like. He told me to speak in a more crass, loud tone and wave my arms around a lot. And when I was calling someone to me, I had to do it loudly since she was a cruel and angry character. Many times he would cut a scene and tell me to be more exaggerating and angry, and try to break away from my normal way of speaking. So yes, creating Gul was quite a challenge.”
On the hateful messages she was receiving because of her character’s actions, Mira Sethi said that she does understand because since an actor is a blank canvas, people often project their emotions on to them:
“I did receive a lot of abuse from fans of the show while the other actors were receiving praises for their comedic skills. And I understand why this happens because this is the nature of acting. An actor is like a blank canvas and people keep projecting this on their real life. I’ve seen a lot of actors do soft roles and people assume that this is how they must be in their real life. When I was in the show “Dil Banjara”, I was receiving a lot of pleasant replies from fans since my character was on a wheelchair and was soft spoken so she garnered a lot of sympathy.”
On whether she would take up the opportunity to play Gul once more, Mira said that she would like to re-write her lines because she feels that toxic people do exist in our society and its important to portray them, but we must also understand that such characters are not always black or white solely:
“If I was offered the opportunity to play Gul again, then I would definitely like to discuss her role with the writer of the show since I am a writer myself, and ask her not to view characters as black and white but morally grey. I do understand that there are toxic people in our society and you have to portray them on our screens, but there is a way of presenting and writing them.”
You can watch the complete interview below:
