PLAYING THE UNLIKABLE

In a conversation with TMS, Delhi actor Gitikka Ganju Dhar talks about playing Shabnam Jamali in Dhurandhar, the complex, overbearing wife of a Pakistani politician and her 25 years as a speaker and anchor

- ADITHI REENA AJITH

With director Aditya Dhar

OR actor Gitikka Ganju Dhar, acting is about inhabiting the unfamiliar. Playing the role of Shabnam Jamali in Aditya Dhar's recently released Dhurandhar, the actor says, "I'm not an overbearing person in real life, and that's what makes it fun.

For Dhar, Shabnam, generally seen as the unapologetic, overbearing wife of a powerful Pakistani politician, is far from a 'negative' character. Even in moments of harshness—like a scene where Shabnam aggressively reprimands her daughter Yalina (played by Sara Arjun)—Dhar found herself initially holding back, only to be reminded that this is who Shabnam is. Yet beneath the severity, Dhar insists, lies a woman shaped by circumstance: married young to an older man (Jameel Jamali played by Rakesh Bedi), navigating power, control and motherhood in a rigid cultural atmosphere. "She's coping with her life and standing by her daughter," Dhar says.