Having starred in films like Say Yes to Love and Yeh Jo Mohabbat Hai, which turned out to be duds at the box office, Sanjay Dutt’s niece Nazia Hussain is now all set to make her southern debut with the Telugu remake of Aashiqui 2 – Nee Jathaga Nenundali opposite Sachiin Joshi.
Nazia has had a rather disappointing start to her Bollywood career with both her films being panned by the critics. The actress, however, is unfazed by it. “Critics criticise everyone. There is good and bad in every sphere of life. This is something an actress should prepare for. If you think I’m rubbish, then that’s your opinion. In a way they push me to work harder. Everyone’s compared to someone or the other,” she says.
Talking about how the film came about, the pretty actress jokes, “It literally fell from the sky. I was sitting at home one day nursing a backache when I got a call and was asked to come for a meeting. I remember I was feeling particularly lazy to go for it. But I decided to give it a shot and when I heard the script, within two to three days I was in Hyderabad, ready to shoot.”
Coming from a filmy background, ask her if films was an option from the beginning, she quips, “It was an option. It was not like ki films hi karna hai (I have to do only films). It was one of the many options I had. I was always a performer, even in school, I used to take part in plays so I had fun doing it. For me it’s very important that I enjoy what I’m doing.”
Following Aashique 2’s resounding success, expectations from its Telugu remake are naturally quite high. When asked if she’s nervous about people’s expectation from the Telugu remake, she says, “No since day one I feel everyone – the entire unit, the actors, directors have worked so hard in this film that I have that much confidence that this film will do well.”
While some people give their best performance under pressure, Nazia says she is not one of them. “I have never worked under pressure, have never felt it actually. When I’m completely passionate about what I’m doing, I give it a 100 per cent. I can’t work under pressure, I can’t function or think at all. Luckily the unit was very chilled out and the director Jaya Ravindra really encouraged me with the dialogues as well,” she shares.
The actress liked the experience of working in Tollywood so much that she now thinks of it as her second home. “The language was the only thing different I felt, apart from that I fit in really quick. It didn’t feel foreign to me at all. The experience is fantastic as I’m discovering a new language and cinema. Somewhere down the line, that comfort level has kicked in,” she explains.
Although Nazia did learn the dialogues for the shooting, the dubbing will be done by someone else. The actress hopes to be able to change this in her next movie down South. “The dialogues have been dubbed by someone else. I have gotten comfortable with the language and could get a sense of enunciating certain dialogues in a scene, which I feel is extremely important. Now that I have finished this film, I want to branch out more in the Telugu film industry and I want to dub my own films,” states Nazia who believes in taking it one step at a time when it comes to roles. “I feel I’m still too young and naive to be picky. Of course, I want to do good roles and films but I don’ have a set plan. Even with the remake there was no goal as such. It was all one day at a time, taking baby steps which works for me.”