She’s Baby Baji at the moment.

It’s a character that television audiences have been very enthusiastically connecting with actress Samina Ahmed since they got smitten by the daily soap of the same name which aired last year. But Baby Baji is only the most recent role to be associated with the actress. She’s added flesh and bones to many more characters over a career that spans many years.

How many years, I ask her. “Many years,” she tells me, “I’ve stopped counting.”

She is wearing a sari when I meet her — a gorgeous white and gold cotton sari that she wears with an innate grace. “I love saris,” she says — which is probably why one has also seen her opting for the garment in many of her recent TV roles.

However, when I look back upon her long acting career, I can’t associate one particular look with Samina Ahmed. There is just so much that she has done, from the ‘70s black-and-white Such Gup to the present-day Baby Baji, from theatre to TV, spanning Lahore, Karachi and other parts of the country, and even Hollywood!

She was in Such Gup in the early 1970s and is still working daily. She remarried only four years ago. From enjoying her newly married life to working full throttle, veteran actress Samina Ahmed seems to be living in the prime of her life. And she continues to blaze a career path that is the envy of the younger, more inexperienced lot…

There is so much that I want to ask her.

The veteran actress and I meet for the interview after much coordination — she has a busy shooting schedule and isn’t very well acquainted with Karachi’s haphazard, half-broken roads. Some of these shoots are on the set of the sequel of Baby Baji — Baby Baji ki Bahuwain. The well-meaning, long-suffering mother-in-law enacted by Samina dies in the first part but she is now going to be sporadically surfacing in the sequel, in the form of flashbacks and dreams, where she will be the voice of reason for her errant ‘bahuwain’ [daughters-in-law].

The acting rigmarole

“We didn’t know that Baby Baji would get such an amazing response when we were shooting it,” says Samina. “I remember that I was in Canada visiting my children around the time that it started airing. Occasionally, I would meet people who would tell me that they were enjoying watching my drama and our team in Pakistan would sometimes send updates on the drama’s high viewership ratings.

“Still, I didn’t quite realise how much people were loving the drama until I landed back in Karachi and was collecting my luggage at the airport. I suddenly heard shouts of ‘Baby Baji, we love you!’... I was taken aback and very pleasantly surprised.”

The drama was, nevertheless, a daily soap, with a saas-bahu-oriented storyline. What drew her to it? “Yes, it was a saas-bahu story,” she accepts, “but what I liked about the script is that every character was very developed. All the daughters-in-law had very distinctive personalities and even the sons had proper careers. A lot of times in our dramas, the sons are completely useless, just staring in shock or crying while their mother and wife fight it out. In Baby Baji, the men were not pitiful.”

And what of your own role, I ask. “Yes, she had a very well-defined personality too,” she replies. “She was the one trying to maintain the peace in the home. I try to choose roles where my character has something to do, makes some sort of impact on the overall story.”

She continues, “That isn’t always the case. I just worked in one drama where my character ended up being quite useless. It was narrated to me that she would get interesting in the later episodes but, eventually, that didn’t end up to be the case. These things happen.”

We turn to her work in Hollywood: she was handpicked to be in the cast of Disney’s Ms Marvel series. How did that happen?

“They just reached out to me and asked me to audition, sending me a script of one or two pages. I had to record a video on my cell phone and send it back to them. We then had successive online meetings. It was a very exciting time and I feel privileged that I could be part of the project.”

Yes, it was a saas-bahu story,” she accepts, “but what I liked about the script is that every character was very developed. All the daughters-in-law had very distinctive personalities and even the sons had proper careers. A lot of times in our dramas, the sons are completely useless, just staring in shock or crying while their mother and wife fight it out. In Baby Baji, the men were not pitiful.”

When the going gets tough …

Touching down back to Pakistan, it’s no secret that the desi drama rigmarole can be quite exhausting for actors. How does she, a veteran who is much older than many in the cast, cope with the long hours? “Tea,” she says, “and I have my food on time, of course.

“It is exhausting, yes. Usually, we are shooting in small houses, where there is one air-conditioned room where all the cast retires. There is no separate room where you can sit back, put up your feet and sit quietly. Also, the Karachi weather is predominantly hot and the heat gets amplified when we shoot in the glare of harsh lights, with all fans and air-conditioners shut off.”

And what about the wedding sequences, I ask her about the shooting spells that are infamous for extending till ghastly hours in the night.

“Yes, those are long,” she nods. “Only recently, we had to shoot a wedding event in a drama and the shooting started at around 10 in the night. It was an outdoor shoot, which went on till the sky began to lighten and you could hear crows squawking. And then the director told me that certain sequences in which I was needed could no longer be shot that day because of the morning light, and that we would have to film them the next day.”

Did it not make her angry? “No,” she shrugs. “I did tell him that he could have informed me earlier, but he said that he couldn’t have known that the other scenes would take so long. I found that perfectly understandable. We just shot the remaining scenes the next day.”

She adds, “I actually have a particular work routine now. I come on set around 12 noon, which is closer to the time that my scenes are shot. I do my make-up at home because I am usually playing a grandmother and not much make-up is required! It saves time.”

So, it’s always the role of a grandmother? “Yes, almost always,” she smiles, “ a daadi or a naani.”

And you’re usually playing a good grandmother? “Yes, I think drama writers tend to perceive grandmothers as good,” she says.

Does it irk her that such similar roles are being offered to her? “I would like to play different roles but, regardless, I love it,” she admits. “It’s part of my DNA, my blood. All creative aspects of entertainment appeal to me.

“I worked at the Alhamra Lahore Arts Council for 20 years as Deputy Director Programmes. I would oversee the programmes that external parties would stage at the Alhamra, as well as work on the Art Council’s own programmes and festivals. This would involve coming up with concepts, working out the budget and getting it approved, and looking over every nitty-gritty necessary for bringing the show to stage.

“I loved it then and I love it now. I wouldn’t know what else to do if I weren’t to act.”

So who is this daadi’s favourite on-screen son? “There are so many,” she muses and then says, “My own son is my favourite!”

Of course he is, theatre director Zain Ahmed. We switch tack to her personal life.

The personal end

Her children are currently settled in Canada — does she wish that they lived closer to her?

“Yes, I would have liked for them to live closer to me but I am also happy in knowing that they are living their lives the way they want to, doing the work that they want to do. Parents can’t restrict their children within geographical boundaries, especially in this day and age. They may be able to get better job opportunities abroad.

“In Pakistan, it makes me so sad that, leave alone jobs, education and health, in these 75 years, our government hasn’t even been able to provide people with clean drinking water!”

Coming back to the topic of her children, she adds, “I did move from Lahore to Karachi in order to live closer to my son, who was settled in Karachi at the time. As it is, I would constantly be coming to Karachi for work and I thought that it was time that I stopped shuttling back and forth in airplanes. And now, as it turns out, my son has moved away.”

Has living away from her children been easier also because she recently tied the knot with actor Manzar Sehbai? “I suppose, yes,” she agrees. “It’s good to have someone to come back home to, to have dinner with in the evening. You don’t feel lonely.”

Her marriage to Sehbai four years ago had come as a surprise, which had made plenty of noise on social media. Her husband’s romantic declarations in successive Instagram posts, and just the notion of a man and a woman of a certain age falling head over heels in love had been sweet. Had he proposed? “Yes, he did,” she says.

She recounts, “We both acted together in a drama but, back then, there was nothing between us, although I did find him pleasant and interesting. It was only closer to when the shooting was wrapping up that we started talking more. After we were done with the drama, we started talking on the phone and went out for dinner, perhaps twice.

“And then one day, he said to me that we should get married. I replied if he thought that it was a good idea, and he said yes. So we did get married!”

Were her children surprised? “Yes, they were. But once the surprise wore off, they were very happy for me,” she says.

Having been single for a long time — she had got divorced when her children were still young — was it difficult for her to readjust to married life? “Yes, it took some time, because I was so used to doing everything myself. But marriage with Manzar gave me the chance to discover new things, start seeing things from a different perspective.”

She smiles. “Even when it comes to work, he is particularly different, because he lived in Germany all his life and he isn’t accustomed to the way people operate here. I know how to go about my work, who to talk to if my airplane ticket for a commitment hasn’t been delivered, how to ensure that my transportation comes on time. Manzar is very principled, very particular about time, and he just expects everyone else to be just as diligent. I suppose he’ll have to learn the hard way!” She laughs.

From enjoying her newly married life to working full throttle, Samina seems to be living in the prime of her life. Does she believe in the maxim that age is only how old you feel? “It’s nothing but a number,” she agrees. “As long as you remain curious, open to take on new challenges and new experiences, you can do so much, regardless of age!”

Published in Dawn, ICON, October 13th, 2024