Yumna Zaidi has been receiving positive responses from fans for portraying the character Sumbul at the show “Dil Na Umeed Toh Nahi”. She was a guest at the show Something Haute where she opened up about how she came to sign up for the show and developed the character of Sumbul.
Yumna revealed that originally when she had received the script for the show, she had not received the complete picture of how her character would pan out since she wasn’t the sole main character, and also knew that the content the show was dealing with wouldn’t allow it to air on some of the top drama shows of Pakistan, but she had wanted to play the role of a prostitute for a long time, and was very excited to receive the role:
“When I received the call for the show from Kashif Nisar, I had previously done two projects with him and Amna so I was able to trust the people I was working with. I had also wanted to sign up for the show because I had wanted to play a prostitute’s character, but I didn’t think that a person with my face or mannerisms would be considered ideal by a director for this role. So when I received the call, I had immediately said yes to the show.”
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The actress also said that she was aware of the fact that since the content the show was dealing with wasn’t light-hearted but was quite intense so it won’t get aired on the top drama shows, and also she was aware of the fact that she won’t be the central character of the show as the story revolves around several people other than her, but she still chose to sign up because she trusted the director and producer:
“When I received the script it had originally only been one script which didn’t give me a lot of insight in to how the series would pan out or what would happen to my character. But I had worked with Kashif Nisar the director on previous shows, as well as with Amna Mufti, so I trusted them and signed up. Kashif Nisar had been someone who had defended me to other people to hire me to work on shows, and I trusted his vision and knew that it would work out if he was on board on it. I was also aware that my character won’t be the central person around whom the series would revolve, since there were other people it would focus on, but I still loved the character and wanted to be a part of the show. I also had signed up for four other projects so I knew that in case my performance did not receive a positive response, I could still have a backup.”
Further opening up about the process of shooting some of the most gruesome scenes like the party or where her character Sumbul finds a childhood toy and dances with it, Yumna said that most people were shocked by her performance thought she might need intensive therapy after filming such scenes, but she clarified that she didn’t need to since she was happy that people loved her performance:
“I was deeply traumatized by some of the scenes we were filming, like for instance the party scene where we had to invite junior artists over to play as guests. That was the moment I had to thank Allah that being a prostitute was not my life, but this was just a character I was playing for a few months. I do read some of the responses and people are shocked and assume that I would need quite intensive therapy after filming a series like Dil Naumeed to Nahi. But in fact, playing Sumbul had boosted my self-esteem and happiness because I was receiving a lot of positive responses for the hard work I had contributed to bringing this character to life.”
You can watch the complete video below:
