As a veteran actor Atiqa Odho has enjoyed much fame in her career and perhaps this is why she is quite selective about her projects. However, her characters have always remained audiences’ favoruite. Recently, she is ruling television as Mansoora in Pyar Ke Sadqay and though there are mixed opinion about her role, one cannot deny the brilliance she performs.
Team Something Haute recently got in touch with the actress to have a chat about her experience of playing Mansoora.
Did you anticipate that Mansoora will become so popular?
“I’m spoilt because in my career of about 30 years, I have had very few projects that have not been successful. I am so blessed and privileged to always have hits that sometimes I take it for granted. I’m thrilled that Mansoora has become somebody whose story people followed and invested in. It is a great feeling to be acknowledged and supported but I’m definitely spoilt,” Atiqa shared.
Initially, did she thought Pyar Ke Sadqay was a risky project keeping in mind its distinctive treatment and execution?
“Sometimes I chose scripts because I have to run the kitchen, so I choose the lesser evil from a lot of bad scripts, while other times I sign when I enjoy the outlook of a character. The reason I signed PKS was because I liked Mansoora. I love the fact that she was married to a younger man; such roles and scripts are not written for television in Pakistan. I always look for a character graph in my roles that from where they start and where they end,” she added.
Did she turn against Mahjabeen only because she commented that Mansoora looked older than Sarwar?
“Characters, expecially in PKS, are mosotly not black and white. They are grey; similarly, in Mansoora’s case, the woman is dealing with a lot of complexities. She is quiet, sober, intelligent yet very complex, so I had a lot to space to play with expressions and that’s how she emotes. She is living in denial for so long that she didn’t notice how Sarwar was ruining her children, especially Abdullah. So she is so desperate to keep her man that she turns a blind eye to everything,” Atiqa shared.
“It is sad and pathetic but that is now women in our society behave. All my characters stem out of somebody that I have observed. It is astonishing how much women can give up — their lives, children, home — just to keep a man. On the contrary, I personally believe in partnership. I’ve managed to bring to life a woman who is totally opposite to what my value system is,” she said.
Will Pakistani dramas ever show a happy married couple where an older woman is married to a younger man?
“I don’t think that our viewers are so naive and narrow-minded as they are presumed to be. We disrespect the audience by showing things that are so unnatural and untrue. There are very few leaders in our industry, most of them are followers who conform to the formula,” she added.
Did Mansoora realize that Sarwar is deceiving her when Munshi jee told her the truth or did it happen later on?
“Mansoora was very close to my personal life because I’ve been through something like this in a marriage, though not with a younger man. I’ve been lied to and cheated on and despite knowing it for years, I denied, ignored and thought about consequences in terms of a broken home and children. I have lived Mansoora in my real life; it took me a long time to get out of a failed marriage. This is what happened to Mansoora as well that she was struggling to accept the idea of a failed marriage,” Atiqa said.
Atiqa also shared how she developed a maternal feeling for Bilal Abbas on sets and reminisced about working with Fawad in Humsafar, with whom she is again working in upcoming film, Nilofer. Watch all this and more in the complete interview here:
