Sarah Hashmi is on a roll. At 25, this spunky Delhi girl has already bagged her first Filmfare award for her short film, Bebaak.
Earlier she had bagged the Best Actress award at the Asia Competition in Shorshorts, Tokyo, for the same film.
“Winning the Filmfare has been a turning point in my life. But what surprised me was winning the award in Tokyo. The screening there didn’t get a great response, so the award was a bolt from the blue,” she laughs.
Co-starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Vipin Sharma and produced by Anurag Kashyap, the film also won director Shazia Iqbal a host of awards.
Acting came naturally to this budding talent. And, why not? Her uncle, the late Safdar Hashmi, was a stalwart in the field and her parents and older sibling are active on the culture scene in Delhi.
Little wonder that Sarah admits, “I think the left side of my brain which is responsible for the creative bend of mind developed more than my right side. I acted for the first time when I was in Class VI.”
With parents to support her foray, she grew up honing her talent with workshops at the National School of Drama and went on to lead her college group in dramatics.
Bollywood was a different ball game altogether.
“I believe that everyone’s journey is very different in Mumbai. The struggle is a long and a hard one. Being from a Bollywood family cuts your struggle by half but if you have to do it all by yourself then it takes time and a lot of sleepless nights,” Sarah admits.
But the journey was surely worth it. Shazia approached her with the script as she had written the role of Fatin (the protagonist) keeping the young actor in mind.
“I read the script in 20 minutes and called her back saying I want to do it,” she remembers.
Though Sarah eagerly agreed to do the role, getting into the skin of the character was difficult.
“Shazia workshopped with me for several days so that I get the nuances right. The internal struggle of Fatin is not expressed through words but through silences and getting that right needed a lot of work. Understanding Fatin and her parents’ world also required work and a lot of thought went behind it,” says the young artist.
The other challenge was holding her own with seasoned actors such as Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Vipin Sharma. But talent breeds confidence.
“It was a breeze. I have acted with Nawaz bhai earlier in Bombay Talkies and we are well aquainted with each other because of Delhi and theatre. I owe him a plate of biryani. Hopefully that should happen soon. Vipin sir was fantastic and a very giving co-actor. He adds minute details in his acting which is an inspiration to observe.”
Up next for Sarah is a web show, Operation MBBS, set to release on Dice Media. She plays a “super nerdy character”, something, she admits, she “had always hoped to be in school because I wanted top marks but couldn’t wrap my brain around studies. Now I finally get to be the nerd,” she laughs.
Quick takes
One role you would love to play
Meryl Streep from Julie and Julia, but younger.
Director wishlist
Anurag Kashyap
Amar Kaushik
Neeraj Ghaywan
Martin Scorsese
Ben Taylor
If you had not been an actor...
I would have been an Ad world mogul.
One myth about Bollywood
People think that everyone’s rich if they work in Bollywood.
A film that made you want to be an actor
Dil Chahta Hai