Web series was a dream project, says actress
SHE may have been introduced to audiences with a lead role in 2019 Bollywood film Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas, but it is the success of recently released web series The Empire that has really kickstarted the acting career of Sahher Bambba.
The hard-working actress delivered a winning performance in the epic Hotstar historical drama and won great reviews for her terrific turn. The exciting newcomer is now looking to build on that success with more high-profile projects that includes a lead role in the forthcoming series Those Pricey Thakur Girls. She is now firmly on the radar of big producers and is looking forward to more challenges.
Eastern Eye caught up with a young actress you will be hearing a lot more about to discuss the success of The Empire, the upcoming show Those Pricey Thakur Girls, and her future hopes.
What first connected you to acting?
As a child, I was always fascinated with the songs and dances in films. As I started growing up, I began to admire the performances on screen. Going to a theatre once a week was like an event. The feeling you have after watching a brilliant performance is what inspired me to become an actor. Even as a teenager, I never had a Plan B. I always knew I wanted to be an actor. I always had that faith and conviction, from God knows where, that things will work out, and I will get a debut.
What was the experience of working on The Empire like?
It was like working on a dream project because rarely do you get a chance to play such a character or be a part of such a massive project and share screen space with Shabana (Azmi) ma’am and work with Emmay Entertainment, Nikhil Advani, Monisha (Advani) ma’am, and Madhu (Bhojwani) ma’am. So, since the day I got to know about the project, I was very excited and hoped to get the part. I put in a lot of hard work because I was super kicked about it. I
just wanted to make sure that I give it my all.
India went into lockdown shortly after The Empire commenced shooting. How did you handle that?
I remember the day we started shooting, the very next day the entire nation went into lockdown. But I used my time very judiciously. I read the script more than 10 times, made notes, and did Zoom calls with my director. We cracked the character in terms of body language and her journey. I was also in constant touch with the Urdu coach, who helped us to get the pronunciation right.
You must have learned a lot?
To observe Shabana ma’am and see what she brings to the table was a great learning for me. In fact, I think both the directors – Nikhil and Mitakshara (Kumar) are geniuses. Mitakshara has an eye for the kind of details that make all the difference. She knows exactly what she wants from her actors. Similarly, Nikhil is the master of his own craft. I am grateful to have had the chance of working with such amazing people.
How much do the positive reviews for the show and your performance in it mean to you?
I think, as an actor, you thrive on love and appreciation. This project took very long because of the pandemic and lockdown. Now that it has been released, the kind of response we all are getting is insane. I’m really grateful to everyone who is watching the show and loving it. Every day I wake up to beautiful messages from people. It is a great feeling. I’m taking each day as it comes and trying to be in the moment as much as I can and be grateful for everything.
What was the biggest challenge of playing your role in The Empire?
The biggest challenge was to get certain aspects of the body language and poise of the character right. The dialogue delivery was also a challenge because it is a period drama set in a specific era. So, you want to make sure that it isn’t over the top and looks as real as possible. On top of that, the costumes and jewellery were insanely heavy. I remember my ears started bleeding the third day of the shoot because of the earrings. But once we started shooting, it took three-four days to get comfortable with our characters.
Tell us about Those Pricey Thakur Girls?
Those Pricey Thakur Girls is one of my favourite books, so I am overjoyed to play Debjani Thakur in the show. She is a fiery newsreader. Both I and my character are in love with animals. It is challenging to essay a much-loved literary character on screen because there are already a certain amount of expectations. But I am thrilled about it and hope people love my interpretation. I am glad to have had an opportunity to work with amazing directors Habib Faisal and Tarun Mansukhani. They both are uniquely different and lovely people.
Sahher Bambba as Maham in The Empire.
What is the master plan going forward?
The plan is to follow my heart and do as many amazing projects as possible. I want to be a part of projects that I believe in, which really excite me, and challenge me as an actor. I’m very hungry to perform versatile roles that challenge and hone my craft. I am already enrolling myself in several workshops, and that is the plan for the time being.
What would be your dream role?
Every role is a dream role because I get a chance to play different characters. Maham, my character in The Empire, is something I had always wanted to do. I had always wanted to be part of a period drama and experience that era.
Can you see yourself doing projects in the west?
I’m very hungry as an actor. So, any opportunity that I get in India or outside, I would love to take it – whether it is a project in the west, a project down south or any other regional cinema, I would give it my all.
What do you enjoy watching as an audience member?
As an audience, I like to watch thrillers and rom-coms.
If you could master something new, what would it be?
I would like to master meditation and yoga. I believe, in today’s time, everyone should take care of their mental and physical health.
What inspires you?
What inspires me the most and has also inspired me to become an actor is a brilliant onscreen performance. Nothing inspires and motivates me as much as the feeling that I’m left with after watching a great film or good performance.
Why do you love being an actress?
I love being an actor because it is something I am and have always been really passionate about. It has been my childhood dream to act in front of a camera. Also, the fact that as an actor, you get to live so many characters. I think it is a very exciting job. I love every part of being an actor. Of course, there are days when it gets taxing emotionally, mentally and physically, but the high that you get after giving a good shot is something else. It is unparalleled. As I said, actors thrive on love and appreciation, and when that comes your way, it is a different feeling.
The actor’s evolving style from youth to maturity getty images
Aamir Khan embracing vintage looks with classic charmgetty images
Bold and dramatic changes defining Aamir Khan’s careergetty images
From rugged to refined Aamir Khan’s versatile appearancesgetty images
Memorable film moments showcasing Aamir Khan’s unique stylegetty images
Aamir Khan’s blend of classic and contemporary fashiongetty images
Aamir Khan’s dedication to authentic character portrayals getty images
Cinematic milestones reflected in Aamir Khan’s on-screen imagegetty images
A seated Jain enlightened teacherAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Ganesha from JavaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
A Chinese silk painting depicting the BuddhaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
ArdhanarishvaraAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Head of a grimacing yakshaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
NagaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The Bimaran casketAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Hunia Chawla
A still from rehearsal
Them performing liveNajmuddin Saifuddin Qawwal Group
The cast of Marriage Material in key moments from the play, including Avita Jay, Kiran Landa, Omar Malik, Irfan Shamji and Anoushka Deshmukh
Sathnam Sanghera’s 'Marriage Material' adapted into bold new play on conformity
The play Marriage Material at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre is Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti’s adaptation of Sathnam Sanghera’s novel of the same name, which first came out in 2013.
She is lucky to have Iqbal Khan direct Marriage Material. The play, a co-production with the Birmingham Rep, is set in the late 1960s. Mr and Mrs Bains (played by Jaz Singh Deol and Avita Jay) run a corner shop in Wolverhampton. Their younger daughter, Surinder (Anoushka Deshmukh), is 16, her sister Kamaljit (Kiran Landa) is just a bit older.
They have a neighbour, Patwant Dhanda (Irfan Shamji), who, as we shall soon see, is not a very pleasant man. In fact, he comes across just as racist as Enoch Powell, who represented Wolverhampton South West for the Tories from 1950 to 1974.
It will be recalled this was a time when Sikhs working on the buses were told they couldn’t wear a turban. That was a hard-fought battle that had to be won.
The Bains, meanwhile, simply want to get their girls married off.
Nothing new here, I thought.
What makes the tale different is that the plot twists and turns down the generations. Mr Dhanda, who has the makings of a paedophile, makes a pitch for one of the girls when Mr Bains dies early in the play. “A life with no man in the house is no life,” he informs the newly widowed Mrs Bains.
Mr Dhanda has a wife but she has returned to India so he considers himself to be a free man.
Surinder’s English teacher from school, Miss Flanagan (Celeste Dodwell), who is also head of the fifth form, tells Mrs Bains about her daughter: “I don’t want to embarrass you, but she is bright. Ridiculously bright.”
She adds: “Mrs Bains, I think it would be a pity if Surinder didn’t stay on at school.” The initial response from Mrs Bains is not encouraging: “Too much education makes people’s brains get mixed up, they don’t sleep at night…”
But she is finally persuaded that Surinder should be allowed to stay on for a while longer before being married off.
Mr Bains was very old school. When Surinder confides she would one day like to be “a somebody”, he is amused that “my daughter wants to be a somebody”.
“Like you,” she tells her father.
Mr Bains consoles his daughter: “We will find a somebody for you to marry.”
At the point of a possible marriage, however, Surinder is sweet-talked by chocolate salesman Jim Wilson (Tommy Belshaw) into running away with him. They share a love of literature, and he calls her “Sue Bains”. But the relationship does not end well.
Once she has left, Surinder is written off as “dead” by her family. The story that is circulated is that she was only 16 when she was killed in a car crash. That’s better than to let on that she ran off with a white man.
By the time she is reconciled with her sister towards the end of the play, a great deal has changed. Kamaljit married Tanvir Banga (Omar Malik), a young man who helped out in the Bains’ corner shop. When the two sisters meet again, Tanvir has also died. But he and Kamaljit had a son, Arjan Banga (Jaz Singh Deol doubles up for this role after the death of Mr Bains). He has come home after his father’s death to help his mother who is still running the family corner shop.
Meanwhile, Mr Dhanda’s business has prospered. He now has a son, Ranjit Dhanda (the role is taken by Omar Malik after Tanvir’s death), and he is nearly as unpleasant as his father.
Arjan has an English fiancée, Claire (Celeste Dodwell). In London, Arjan worked as a creative director. But after deciding to stay in Wolverhampton to help his mother, he decides he cannot marry Claire because she is white. In other words, Asians are not free of racism, either. Happily, at the end, the couple are reconciled.
As for Surinder, she parted company with Jim Wilson after realising he was all talk, depended on her for money and had failed to earn a penny from his literary pretensions. She had prospered, though, as a hotel owner and had been transformed in time into a well-groomed businesswoman. After being tracked down by Arjan, she decides to return to her roots in Wolverhampton and help Kamaljit run the family corner shop. Perhaps 50 years had passed during the passage of the play.
Being subjected to racism turned some Asians into racists themselves. The word goreh (white person) is repeatedly spat out with venom. Maybe it is worth remembering the play’s audience isn’t exclusively Asian – white folk are watching as well. And maybe some of the toilet humour ridiculing white people, which always makes me cringe, could be cut out.
In Sanghera’s novel, there is a quote from Enoch Powell’s speech in November 1968: “The West Indian or Asian does not, by being born in England, become an Englishman. In law he becomes a United Kingdom citizen by birth; in fact, he is a west Indian or an Asian still... he will by the very nature of things have lost one country without gaining another, lost one nationality without acquiring a new one. Time is running out against us and them. With the lapse of a generation or so we shall at last have succeeded – to the benefit of nobody – in reproducing ‘in England’s green and pleasant land’ the haunting tragedy of the US.”
In Marriage Material, where the acting is marvellous (apart from Mr Dhanda’s Indian mannerisms and accent being overdone) we do travel across a couple of generations.
There is a scene when Tanvir rejects Mr Dhanda’s vision of creating a little Punjab in Wolverhampton.
Mr Dhanda wants to take over the Bains’ corner shop and is putting pressure on Tanvir to sign the papers. He says: “In this country, money is the path to freedom.”
“Sign, please,” he instructs Tanvir. “We must make sure our children learn to behave nicely, according to our rules.”
He insists: “We maintain our identity so we can be ourselves.”
Tanvir disagrees: “We can be us here. With the goreh.”
Dhanda warns him: “Then we will be inviting chaos.”
Tanvir’s comment is telling: “You sound like Enoch.”
Kamaljit, who is expecting a baby with her husband Tanvir, says: “I would like my child to grow up knowing the history of the Gurus and to read the Granth Sahib. And to love their culture.”
Tanvir tells his wife: “I would like my child to go to the finest schools, to cheer for England in the World Cup and eat Yorkshire pudding on a Sunday.”
Kamaljit sets out a dream that has perhaps come to pass with many third and fourth generation British Asians: “Maybe our child can do both.” Much, much later, in a throwback to the past, we learn of Surinder’s O-level results: “Biology A, Chemistry A, English Language A, English Literature A, French A, History B, Latin A, Mathematics A, Physics A…”
Kamaljit tells her younger sister: “Never mind about the B.”
And that is quintessentially Asian. Their acting is outstanding.
Marriage Material is at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre until June 21, and at the Birmingham Rep from June 25-July 5