JOIN US'Theatre is an addiction for me'
Although Nigaar Khan stepped into the glamour world with modelling and has been acting in television shows for almost a decade now, it is theatre which excites her the most.
The actress, who recently acted in the play ‘Red Hot’ directed by director-actor Saurabh Shukla, says that she loves doing commercial theatre which is like an addiction for her.
“I love doing TV serials because I started my acting career with that, but theatre is like nasha (addiction) for me. I only do commercial theatre. I like going on stage where you have only one take. Either you make it or you break it. If you don’t get a good response from the audience, you really feel sad as an actor. So it is theatre which excites me more as an actor,” she says.
Sharing her experiences of working with Saurabh Shukla, Nigaar says that any artiste who works with him is reborn as an actor.
“When you work with a director like him, you are reborn as an actor. He brings out that part from an actor which even he would not have realised before,” says Nigaar, who started her career as an actress with TV serial Lipstick. Nigaar quit her modelling career around nine years ago and since then has been playing negative roles in various TV serials.
She feels that most TV shows these days are dominated by the characters than the actors who play them.
“I have done only negative roles of different types out of choice. That was possible because different kinds of roles were being written. But these days, almost all stories are similar. Most of the actors are known for their characters they are playing. Once the serial gets over, very few of them are remembered by their real names,” says Nigaar, who was seen in serials like India Calling, Ayushman, Hum Do Hain Na, Jeet Ek Ladki Anjani Si, and Har Ghar Kuch Kehta Hai.
Nigaar Khan, the elder sister of VJ, model and film actor Gauhar Khan recalls their journey on the TV show, Khan Sisters on ‘UTV Bindass.’ The show peeps into their lives and their relationship as siblings. “We share a very special bond, but to bring that on national television and to live it everyday along with so many cameras around was a different experience altogether,” says Nigaar.
She also believes that her younger sister Gauhar is far more talented than her.
Is there a point of rivalry with both sisters being in the glamour world? “No, not at all,” Nigaar replies swiftly. “I don’t think that way, but Gauhar is far more talented.
Besides, my field is very different from her. Right now, my total attention is on television and Gauhar is into films. There has never been a point of competition because when I left modelling, Gauhar started doing modelling,” she adds.
She says that their choice of work and approach towards work are also completely different.
Ask how different and similar they are from each other, Nigaar says, “Gauhar is a diva and I am a desi girl. Gauhar is very clear in her mind about what she wants from her life, but I have never planned my life. I take each day as it comes. I am a cleanliness freak unlike Gauhar. But both of us are equally emotional.”
While a lot of actors and models struggle for a break, for Nigaar, who wanted to be a teacher, acting and modelling happened accidently.
“I don’t know where modelling and acting came from. It just happened accidently. I was walking with a friend of mine in my college and somebody offered me a modelling assignment.
For me, acting was also never planned. Frankly speaking, I did not know if I could act,” remembers Nigaar, who is soon going to be on a TV show called Sapno Ke Bhanwar Mein.