Kaisi Yeh Yaariyan fans may have hated the character of Soha, but it
can't be denied that Jasmine Avasia was brilliant in portraying the
role of the Psycho Soha Khurana. I am pleased to bring you an Exclusive Interview of this very talented Actress.
Q:
Tell me something about you!
A: My siblings and me are raised by a single parent, my mother. Mom and Dad separated when we were kids. Since my Mom was a Maharashtrain married to a Zoroastrian and wanted us to know about the parsi culture , My younger sister and me were sent to a Parsi Boarding School in Bandra (The Bai Ava Bai Framji Petit Girls High School). I spent 12 years of my childhood there and I feel blessed to have grown up there. Besides religious studies I also learnt a lot of things like how to be independent, fight for ones rights, lead the path of righteousness, sharing and caring and the most important of all never crib and adjust your self in whatever situation. I apply these rules in my day to day life and that's exactly what has kept me going further till now. Even as a kid I could never see injustice done to anybody. For me if something was wrong then it just was and that had to be stopped. I was a child who would question a lot. Also I am very stubborn, adamant and short tempered. I can't stand lies and hypocrisy. I really can't stand nagging, I live life on my own terms and I get really mad at people who try to hamper my happiness. I'm a possessive daughter and a girlfriend. As a kid, I could never stand my mom loving another kid, even loving my younger sister in front of my eyes, I wanted all the attention. Even today if my boyfriend happens to compliment or praise another girl in front of me, I'll keep that grudge in me lifelong! hahaha... Maybe that's why I have never been successful in any of my relationships so far. Being a Leo, I'm way to dominant and I don't think that's a good thing to be!
Q:
How was your experience working on Kaisi Yeh Yaariyan?
A: If I have to talk about "Soha" then let me tell you that was the best and the most interesting character I got to play. I hadn't even auditioned for the role. To tell you the truth, I had rejected the role earlier. Actually I was tied up with Dream Girl that comes on life ok. The schedule for dream girl got delayed by a few months and hence I ended up as Soha in Kaisi Yeh Yaariyan. So I called back BBC and asked them if I can still be a part of KY2. The casting guy told me that since I rejected the role of Soha, they've shortlisted some girls but none of them were chosen to for Soha. So I packed my bags and left for the shoot location. I was the 1st one to reach there amongst all the other shortlisted girls. I had to wait for another 4 hours there and that literally killed my patience. I was about to walk out and the crew asked me to wait for another 10 minutes.After 5 minutes she came to me and told that I'm on board. Trust me... I had no clue that Soha will be turning into a complete manic at one point nor did I have any knowledge about the popularity of this show. But over all, working with KYY was the best journey. Everyday used to be fun with all my co-actors. They are awesome guys to work with and I still miss being a part of Kaisi Yeh Yaariaan.
Q:
You portrayed one of the most hated characters in KY2. How did you feel about it?
A: My entry in the show was flirting with Manik and from there on I was bombarded with so many hate comments. Believe me... I didn't have the slightest idea that this show was taken personally by so many young hearts. Manik and Nandini were like gods for them and any body coming in between the couple was bombarded by a lot of hate comments! Hahahaha.. I just did my job as an actor and the audience hated me for even touching Manik's cheek! But like always I took that in my stride and didn't let that bother me. In fact it's a big thing if a negative character is hated. Negative characters aren't meant to be loved of course! So that's where I had won. The bad comments were my only award. There were times when fans came to meet KYY actors and I used to feel like if I step outside the vanity I'd be shot dead... hahahaha!
Q:
What is one quality you like best about you?
A: One quality that I love in me is being fearless and being completely independent. If you were to ask my mom about me you'd only get one reply from her and that is " she's my son". I am somebody who loves to live life to the fullest even if that's being alone. I daily ride my scooty to marine drive in the nights and sit here for hours together listening to music and feel the breeze. I can never get bored of my own company. There's something or the other constantly running on my mind. I feel I have wasted a day of my life when I can't make it to Marine drive. There have been times when I have packed my bags and left alone for Goa and Gokarna, spent days there traveling all by myself and returning back home all safe and sound. Some people think me to be mad and sometimes end up telling me "stop being so Soha" hahaha! But that's a feeling only I know when I'm all happy and by myself. So my Freedom is something that I want and don't want others to be an obstacle in it.
Q:
What is one thing you would like to change about yourself?
A: One thing that I'd like to change about myself is become a little
punctual. I'm always late for shoots. We Parsis are known for our
punctuality and I'm totally opposite.
Q:
Do you believe in love at first sight?
A: Yes, of course I do believe in love at first sight. My mother fell in love
with me when I took birth. Well, jokes apart, as we all know mothers love
their kids no matter what. But somewhere I'm a little skeptic when it
come to love at first sight. According to me love is a deep big word.
What you have at first sight is pure attraction and not love. Both these
terms "love" and "attraction" have been misunderstood by many of us.
There is a thin line between the two. Love is about caring, understanding,
getting to know the person better and adjusting if you are poles apart. I
don't think these things matter when you first see a person. Sometimes we
like a person by his appearance or his dressing sense. But once the
person opens his mouth, he's a big flop! Or rather sometimes we fall for
the voice of an RJ but later we find out he's an old man in his 40's. Hahahaha! Well, I don't know about others, but I believe in pure
practicality. Hence for me it can be "attraction at first sight" but not
"love at first sight"
Q:
If you were not an Actress or Model, what would you have been?
A: If not an actor, then I would definitely have been a Crime Beat Journalist. That's
what I wanted to become being a BMM Graduate and a Journalism student.
But Mom knew that I could do better as she saw the actor part in me when I was
a kid. Though I was this shy and introvert kid but somewhere mom knew I
could do better as an actor. So once I was questioned by Mom as to why
I wanted to become a crime beat journalist rather what will I do becoming
one. I replied saying, "I want to interview Kasab". Mom
further asked "What if Kasab is dead by the time you become one?" And I
replied saying, "I'll go and interview other criminals and get to the
core of it as to how and why did they get into committing crime?" Later Mom put her foot down and asked me, "How about you becoming something big
and people coming and interviewing you?" And that's where she shut me up
and gave me a reason to think and let me choose my career wisely. And it is just then I was offered Splitsvilla Season
5 and I went ahead with it. And that took a U turn in my life and people
loved me on the show.
Q:
What do you do to stay in shape?
A: Well... trust me on this... I do absolutely nothing to remain in shape. My
family is just blessed with it. My mom used to be just like me till last
5 yrs. Even my siblings for that matter are good in shape. I have never
been to a Gym. Earlier I used to do physical activities like
yoga, karate, dancing and swimming. But it's been years since I have stopped all
the activities but I'm still just the way I always was!
Q:
Arranged Marriage or Love Marriage... which one would you prefer?
A: Well, I'd prefer NO marriage at all! I mean dude too many
complications yaa! If you go to see both arranged marriages and love
marriages have equal number of complications and good things too. I know of a
few people who are happy with their love marriage and a few others happily
settled with arrange marriages.. Then another few who aren't
happy being arrange married or love married! So it all depends from
person to person.. I think it's high time we stop blaming the two types
of marriages and blame ourselves for not being successful in our
relationship. What would one blame when partners happen to cheat on each other? When one parent has to give up profession to take care
of children at home and keep a grudge against the partner for life long?
What is to be blamed when partners refuse to trust and understand each
other? What happens when insecurities, possessiveness and jealousy seeps
in? Are they just gonna sit and blame their parents for hooking them up
in an arranged marriage and think life would have been better had it
been a love marriage or rather blame themselves for getting married to
the love of their life and later think what their parents said about
arrange marriage was right? In the end it's nothing but just a blame
game! Blaming your parents or blaming yourself! I think whatever type of
marriage it is, one should and must adjust and understand the others point
of view and be responsible for their own actions. We all are different
individuals with different personalities. So I just feel, next time the
debate should be on "successful marriages" or "unsuccessful marriages"
instead of "arranged marriages" or "love marriages". You will see how many
of our hypocrite Indians vouch on "successful marriages" but those same
people wouldn't know how to make their own marriages a successful one,
lol!
Q:
Eve Teasing and Woman’s Harassment is one of the leading issues in this society. What's your opinion about it?
A: Well, Let us all agree and accept the fact that the place we live in is
a male dominating society! I mean forget eve teasing, raping,
molestations, woman's harassment etc etc! Before I talk on these points
let me draw your attention to VJ Shenaz Treasurywala's open letter to
these big personalities of our country. No matter how hard she tried to
raise her voice against such activities also putting her personal life
experiences, she was bombarded with a huge number of hate comments! I
don't understand how and where did she go wrong. There were hate
comments saying "she's doing it for publicity" "she's a slu*" "stop
talking like a saint, we all have seen your intimate scene in
Delhi-belly"... what was shocking to me was that not only men but also
women were against her! I don't understand why she was
being blamed and for what. For being an actor and doing intimate scenes... or for the open letter she put up in public which did of course hurt a
lot of male egos? Let's all agree to the fact that we all are
surrounded by hypocrites. Either a woman is physically
getting raped or getting raped by these hate comments from people. A woman
has to change her surname after she's married as practiced and said by
our forefathers. Some religions also get the woman's name changed as she
has entered into a new life! May I ask why? How many men have changed
their surnames or their names after getting married? Haven't they as
well entered into a new life altogether after getting married? All her
life a woman has been known and identified by the name she carries... the
name given to her by her parents who gave her birth. I ask who has the
audacity to give her a completely new name and change her identity? I
think the problem had started here which slowly gave the rights to
these men of our country to commit crimes like rape and sexual
harassment as they all started believing that women are a weaker gender.
Do anything to them and all they will do is keep quiet because they wouldn't
want to be questioned on their character! Another thing I don't understand
is, why are we woman in a constant debate with men as to who is more
strong? There shouldn't be a competition in the first place because we are
far superior than men and they all know it! Hence when Shenaz or any
other woman has raised her voice in public, they see to it that they
bombard her with vulgar comments to shut her up! And all these so called
woman join hands in hand with these men to make it worse for the
victim!! They would only understand had they been in any of the
victims shoes! Even when it comes to gaalis .. We talk about gender
equality so we have abusive words for both men and women like "Bhad**" -
"Ran**" , "Chutya"- "Chut" but why are these abusive words exceeded by 2
other extra gaalis only for women?? Like "Madarc***" and "bhenc***" why
don't we say "Baapc***" and "Bhaic***" ????? I'm NOT sorry to say this,
we don't live in a democratic country, we live in a hypo-critic country!
Also I'm not biased and I'm not anti-men.There have been women who
hold even innocent guys responsible for no fault of theirs! Woman who
have used and taken advantage of their rights of being a woman. Maybe
some do it on purpose to take advantage of the other man or some do it
because they believe in the policy of "all men are dogs". I have a brother
and I wouldn't want him to be slapped in a public crowded place if his
hand happens to touch another lady by mistake. Also if tomorrow my
brother happens to commit a mistake we all will take strict action
against him and see to it that he is punished! We woman know the
difference between a good touch and a bad touch and not every man out
there is a vulgar guy and we need to understand that first. I have only one message to every victim. DO NOT believe in ignoring when strangers
pass nasty vulgar comments, rather walk straight up to them and shut them
up! To every victim who has been raped or molested, be it both men or
woman, have the courage and the strength to answer all the vulgar
questions asked by our police men! Do not show your weaker side to them...
do not be afraid and do not fall week at any cost because the more you fall
week it only gives them a chance to pounce on you and take advantage of
you. There have been so many cases where the policemen refuse to file a
case or even write a report and then they blame the victim that she did
not provide us with proper evidence. I just want all those affected
women to know and realise that they aren't alone in this fight. Raise a
voice now a stop such crime before that happens with one of your family
member!
Q:
What kind of roles do you want to do? Do you have a dream role? Are you open to intimate scenes and exposing?
A: Well, my dream is to work with Boman Irani in a Hindi-parsi
series or a movie if there has to be any. Being a complete mad bawa by
blood I think I would be able to pull off any role of a bawa offered to me. I
love the way we speak and our sense of humor. I think if we lose that
sense of humor then we lose everything.. It is just in us since birth. I
don't think any non Parsi can enact out a role of a bawa but only a
bawa can pull it off. It's easy to play the role of a funny drunk
Maharashtrian man or that of a filthy rich businessman or a
psychopath but being a mad bawa is just a unique thing I feel. Well,
I'm really not interested in doing intimate scenes but I have no
problem with people doing it onscreen. I truly appreciate them for being
strong, confident and gutsy enough for acting out intimate scenes. It's
not in every body to do so. Not in me at least!
Q:
I have to compliment you saying that your expressions were
marvelous in the last episodes after it was revealed that Soha is a
Psycho. Will we see you back on KY2?
A: Thank you so much! My
experience working with Kaisi Yeh Yaariaan was the best experience so
far. I really wish to go back and work with them again. But as of now
that's not happening.
Q:
What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
A: Well, in my free time I catch up with my close friends or travel somewhere.
Q:
How active are you on Social Networking Sites? Do you interact with fans?
A: I am quite interactive on social media sites. Yes, I reply to my fans as and when I get the time. They show so much love by making cute edits and videos for me on Instagram.. They show their love and appreciation regarding my work through direct messages... such love from them can't be ignored. So I really can't ignore my fans. I do reply back to them.
Q:
Do you have a message for your fans?
A: Message for my fans would be, I love them all for supporting me and loving me as Soha and for other character roles that I have played. I would always appreciate all the love and concern they've showered upon me. Continue to do the same and I would never put them down.