Subhash K. Jha talks to the Lunchbox heroine Nimrat Kaur. She said that she has declined about 450 scripts in two years
Nimrat Kaur wasn’t craving for international stardom, but that seems to be her calling and destiny, given that she has landed a part in the hit foreign TV series “Homeland”. She says in the time between “The Lunchbox” and “Homeland”, she refused umpteen roles in searching for “something right”.
It was a long wait.
“‘The Lunchbox’ was released a year ago. I shot for it two years ago. So basically, I did my last film two years back. It was a long wait, yes. But it isn’t as if I was smugly waiting for a big international project to fall into my lap after ‘The Lunchbox’,” Nimrat said on phone from Cape Town, where she’s shooting for “Homeland”.
The actress, who stole hearts with her unsentimental yet heartrending performance as a lonely suburban wife in “The Lunchbox”, says she rejected numerous offers to play lonely housewives and other desultory divas that came her way after “The Lunchbox”.
“I must have said no to nearly 450 scripts in 2 years. It wasn’t as if I was being fussy. But nothing seemed right for me,” she said.
The part of the Pakistani ISI agent in “Homeland” did it for Nimrat. There is little she can do to prepare for the part.
“We are not given a chance to rehearse. No homework works because the scenes and lines are given when we reach the location,” she said.
Nimrat finds this method of working to be distracting.
“We did repeated sessions of rehearsals for ‘The Lunchbox’. I kept working on my character and her lines until they became a part of me. Here, while shooting for ‘Homeland’, it’s like being on a constant roller-coaster. One never knows what lies in store,” said the actress, who is having the time of her life shooting in Cape Town.
“It is exciting, a completely different experience from ‘The Lunchbox’. I am in this for at least seven episodes. It was meant to be less earlier and has now been increased. So who knows, my role in the series may be increased even further,” she added.
The role “just happened” for Nimrat.
“I didn’t plan it this way. I auditioned for ‘Homeland’ and then moved on. There was no plan to sit and wait for another potentially global project to fall into my lap,” she said and denied that she got “Homeland” because of “The Lunchbox”.
“Things don’t work that way over here. I had to audition for the part and was chosen on the basis of the audition and not because they liked my work in The Lunchbox.”