Veteran actor Simone Singh is enjoying playing a regal Muslim character in Colors show Bahu Begum (Prateek Sharma). “It is quite a challenge to always creatively maintain Razia’s very controlled demeanour, despite all hell breaking loose around her. Yet my output also differs from scene to scene, where sometimes she does get emotional, depending on the situation.”
Simone is loving working with the lead cast. “Both Diana Khan and Samiksha Jaiswal are playing their respective characters with aplomb.”
Point out that Bahu Begum, which began with a promise to tackle the issue of polygamy in a mature light, has yet again become the typical good wife-bad wife soap, and she says, “Daily soaps need to follow a certain template, and accordingly, tracks with required twists and turns will evolve. You really can’t blame us for at the end of the day, this is a commercial venture and you need to serve what the audiences want.”
“Having said that, with web coming along in a big way, TV storytelling will also mature. Right now, we can’t take home any character though.”
She had last played a very dominating mother in Amazon Prime’s women-centric drama, Four More Shots Please. “We will be back with Season 2.”
Here, she refused to comment on the next season of her other ALTBalaji Muslim social, Haq Se. “While I hope it comes back, the producers (Viraj Kapur and Karan Raj Kohli) would be in a better position to answer your query.” Rajeev Khandelwal and Surveen Chawla were the other big names in this Kashmir-based drama, directed by Ken Ghosh.
Simone, who began her career years back as a lead with Sony Muslim social, Heena, says, “It is interesting to play characters that have gone through similar circumstances (husband abandonment), but yes, both the characters come from different age groups and circumstances. Heena was in her twenties, while Razia is now in her forties and a mother.” (Arjit Taneja plays her on-screen son).
Besides TV, Simone continues to do films as well. “I have 2 projects up my sleeve, Lal Kaptan (directed by Navdeep Singh) and Love Aaj Kal 2 (Director Imtiaz Ali).”
“Both the mediums have their respective plus points. In TV, since you play the same character for a long time, if you want, you can really immerse yourself in it. As for films, given that the characters are very well written and etched out clearly, you can go all out in playing them.”
Simone’s earlier hit films have been Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, Kal Ho Naa Ho, etc.