Zoya Hussain and Pavan Malhotra have been garnering praise for their portrayals in the Disney+ Hotstar show Grahan since its release on June 24. Zoya plays Pavan’s daughter in the show and an IPS officer.
In an exclusive chat with Spotboye.com, when we asked Zoya about her experience of working with Pavan, she revealed an unknown story to us. “Pavan ji and I had actually met on another film where we were also playing father and daughter, but that film didn’t work out because a lot of people there were hit by the pandemic situation. That film was a total commercial romcom, so a very different space. But by the time we worked on Grahan, we had already done some workshops for the film, so we had that comfort of playing off each other,” she shares.
Zoya is comparatively new to the industry while Pavan is an experienced actor. Ask her if there were any skills of his that she noticed and tried to imbibe in her and she responds, “It was very interesting to watch him in action and see how he approaches things. Obviously, I want to steal everything from him. If someone does something interesting, I like to observe that and put them into my characters.”
The actress goes on to add that an experienced person like Pavan on set, plays a huge part in motivating the whole team. “It’s very encouraging when somebody you look up to is encouraging and appreciative of your work. It helps you as it was very easy for him to be snooty and be in his own space, but he was always on the set with everyone, whatever time it was. He was such a team player and it boosted everyone’s morale and enthusiasm,” she says.
It has been four years since Zoya’s debut film, Mukkabaaz hit the theatres. Since then, she has done mostly intense roles only. Is it a conscious decision? “This film that I was doing with Pavan ji was full masala, but it didn’t work out. It had an amazing cast and director but I just felt that shayad meri kismat mein hi nahi hai. As for me, I would love to do all kinds of films, but my only criteria is that I don’t want to be replaceable in the film. I want my work to speak for itself. It hasn’t been a conscious decision to not do such films, but it has been a conscious decision to not do replaceable roles,” she concludes.
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