Neha Sargam opens up on playing Yashoda in a more contemporary & relatable way

 

 

Vrindavan, June 5 : Actress Neha Sargam is all set to play the role of Yashoda in the show ‘Yashomati Maiyaa Ke Nandlala’. She recently visited Vrindavan and Mathura to seek blessings of Lord Krishna for her show and spoke at length about her role, love for music and the character she is keen to play in future.

On playing Yashoda and how she is portraying the character in a different way, the actress says: “Till now I have seen actors playing Yashoda as a very quintessential mother who’s very positive, very docile and polite. I am not playing that mother. I am very loud. She is very out-front and never hesitates in expressing herself.”

On being asked if she relates to the character, she replies: “I completely relate to my character and my director keeps saying this. When I am stuck at some point and asks him how to do it, my director says, ‘My Yashoda is you, so do the way you want’, the director has supported me and I got the freedom to deliver dialogue in a way I want to and here I got an opportunity to explore my character and be myself.”

The actress is right now busy with another project and that is the third season of ‘Mirzapur’. She was also part of the second season.

After doing TV and OTT both, she feels viewers connect with the latter as it has more relatable content and on TV also such shows are more successful.

“I have a feeling the audience shifted to OTT why? Because it is relatable. People are crass sometimes. Without using abusive language or cuss words they can’t talk.A And that is all the reasons ‘Mirzapur’ was liked by the audience. They get to see characters with whom they can connect well or they look like those we often meet or interact with on a day-to-day basis.”

On the question why today’s generation would watch and connect with the mythological shows like this, Neha says she is trying to make it contemporary with her acting skills and the role played by her.

“I can’t change the content. I can’t change the treatment of such shows which are based on the incarnation of different avatars or for instance Lord Krishna. For this audience to have some likeability for such shows. But otherwise, those audiences who want to watch something which is relatable, in that I am doing my bit that I’m making it relatable in terms of if they watch me playing the mother, they will say, ‘she looks like today’s mother’.

“So, hopefully, those audiences who go to OTT platforms to watch something that is relatable, maybe they’ll have a likability factor for this show and for me as well,” she says.

The most challenging part of her role in this show was the language, as she says: “To get into the skin of this character, I have to speak Braj language smoothly and that was not easy. But when my hairdresser told me he wants to learn this language from me, I felt my purpose was solved.”

The actress who appeared in ‘Indian Idol 4’ and later moved towards acting, doing several TV shows including ‘Chand Chupa Badal Mein’, ‘Ramayan: Sabke Jeevan Ka Aadhar’, ‘Yeh Hai Aashiqui’ and OTT shows, never thought of becoming an actor initially.

“I always wanted to be a singer. When I was studying advertising and marketing, I thought maybe I’ll join a good advertising agency and will continue my singing. But things changed and went sideways.

“Now acting took the forefront. But I am still pursuing singing and have been a part of musical play, ‘Mughal-E-Azam’ as an actor and singer. I have my friend in the industry like Sonu Nigam who keeps telling me that, ‘Neha never leaves singing, you sing really well. So, I will keep doing it whenever I get time.”

Neha has played different kinds of roles on-screen but one character she is looking forward to portraying is: “I want to play a detective. I watch many detective series. I am looking forward to playing a character like the Kate Winslet show, ‘Mare of Easttown’ in which she plays a cop. Something of that sort would interest me now.”

‘Yashomati Maiyaa Ke Nandlala’ highlights the story of Lord Krishna and his bond with his mother Yashoda.

Produced by Contiloe Pictures, the show features Neha as Yashoda, Rahul Sharma as Nand Maharaj, Ram Yashvardhan as Kans, Romiit Raaj as Lord Vasudev and Hitanshu Jinsi as Lord Vishnu.

‘Yashomati Maiyaa Ke Nandlala’ will start from June 13 on Sony Entertainment Television.