Interview: Nafisa Ali
By: Kiran Ayodhya
Comets do not regularly make themselves visible to the average human eye looking up to the skies. Even when comets are seen, they just show up, entertain for a bit, then leave Earth’s orbit and…well, do whatever else such an icy space phenomenon would do when no one else is watching.
Indeed, in the time that elapses between comets passing through just outside Earth’s orbit, all most humans will be able to see as they collectively look up at the dark sky are a series of stars whose presence can be seen almost all the time and from just about any location where one would have a clear path to stare upwards.
If stars and comets can be analogized to actors, Nafisa Ali will gladly call herself a passing comet of Bollywood. Sure, she can be seen from time to time in mainstream Hindi cinema and will have her fair share of when her films release, yet when each respective movie’s time passes, so does the attention surrounding Nafisa. Just like a comet, she maintains a sense of popularity and glamour as she is passing through, but once the film has taken its course, so has she.
And she has no problem hailing herself as a comet instead of a star that is steadily in everyone’s view.
“I love doing films, but I am just a comet and not a star in Bollywood,” the veteran actress told the press as she was promoting her role in the upcoming release of Lahore, which Nafisa dubs as her “comeback film.”
In finding an acting gig after an extended absence from the big screen, the former Miss India has spent only a modest amount of time pursuing her thespian career. Since 1979, the one-time beauty pageant winner and popular Indian athlete has accepted only a handful of roles. Still, she has starred alongside some of the biggest names in Hindi film, including Sashi Kapoor in the 1979 Shyam Benegal film Junoon, Amitabh Bachchan in 1988’s Major Saab, Anil Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor in 2005’s Bewafaa, and Dharmendra in the 2007 flick Life in a … Metro.
She even tried her hand in Malayalam cinema in 2007, starring with Mammootty in Big B, one of her final acting gigs prior to Lahore.
Despite finding fame in Junoon as one of Shashi Kapoor’s co-stars, Nafisa seemed to have other priorities on her mind – like married life and social activism. Indeed, after Junoon, the 53-year-old former swimmer and jockey made a brief run at a Lok Sabha seat for Parliament and maintains an active status in both Congress and Samajwadi Parties.
A life of politics and social activism was far more appealing to Nafisa than sports, beauty pageants or, for that matter, acting.
“As a social activist, I am always thinking about humanity and that young people should think about change,” Nafisa told reporters, adding that her acceptance of a supporting role in Lahore fits her broad political agenda and social interests. “Lahore deals with a sensitive subject, and I thought it was necessary for me to do it. Whenever I do a film, I think about what message it will convey.”
With Lahore, the message was rather compelling for Nafisa, hence her appearance in the film about Indian-Pakistani relations in the context of the relatively unknown sport of kickboxing.
Directed by debutante filmmaker Sanjay Puran Singh Chauhan, Nafisa believes Lahore can help ease relations between the two neighboring countries by relating to the youth through sport and cinema — two fields the former Miss India has mastered quite well during her lifetime.
“The story of the film is very empowering and, as a former national swimming champion, I loved to essay the role of a mother who has two sons — one is a cricketer and the other is a kick-boxer. The film has the spirit of both,” Nafisa thoughtfully and humbly told the press. “I hope, after watching the film, a lot of young people will go for kickboxing, and I think the youth of India and Pakistan will relate to it.”
Whether Nafisa will relate to her acting career after starring in this film is unlikely, what with her clearly stating that she feels she is more of a comet than a star and characterizing her time in Bollywood as being similar to that of a passerby. Still, Lahore is not Nafisa’s final acting role, as she did inform the press that she plans on being featured as Hrithik Roshan’s mother in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Guzaarish.
Still, for the time being, all Nafisa hopes for right now is for Lahore to be an influential film that makes a positive difference to all those who trek out to watch it despite fierce competition from two other Bollywood productions that open on the same day. (It does not really help either that the film was reportedly banned from release in Pakistan by government officials.)
Also starring Farooque Sheikh Sushant Singh, Saurabh Shukla and Nirmal Pandey, Lahore opens on March 19th and is distributed by Warner Bros.
(Editor’s Note: Press Trust of India contributed to this story.)
