SCREENPLAYS NOW TOUCH UPON REAL STORIES: JENNIFER
Jennifer Winget, who reprises her role as a manipulative woman in a TV show says until now, she was acting “but not enjoying it”
She started her acting career as a child actor in films and later did numerous TV shows including Dill Mill Gayye, Saraswatichandra, Beyhadh and Bepannah. Each show helped her career reach a new high but while the audiences were used to seeing Jennifer Winget as a goody-good girl on TV, playing a negative role in a soap opera got her success like never before.
After a stupendous success of the first season of her last hit TV show, she will now reprise the role for the next season. “I’m both, nervous and excited but I am hoping and praying that we achieve the same amount of success, if not more,”says the actor, adding, “With the first season, none of us knew how the audiences would react to Maya, my character which was manipulative and cunning but now, I hope they enjoy what we have created.”
Ask her if playing bad is more interesting for her and she says, “It’s a refreshing change for me, new ground and unchartered territory. It’s so much fun playing such a fresh and unique character. You get to chart your course, there’s no norm to her. At least, I get to be deviant as I’m too good in real life (laughs). But on a serious note, I think we’ve all had our share of the saas-bahu sagas, love stories going sour and complicated family feuds. Today, screenplays touch upon real stories and have gone beyond to become more experimental. My character isn’t far-fetched as everyone goes through obsessions and emotional extremes. In our show, we have just brought them to the fore.”
Jennifer proudly calls herself a “TV actor” and doesn’t believe there is any stigma attached to being called on. She shares, “I have been in the industry longer than I can remember. As a child artiste, first, and then making my way with some really popular TV shows. While those helped me make my mark, I do believe that my comeback with this show made me fall in love with my work even more. Before that, I was acting but not enjoying it so much, this show changed that for me. It left me to weave the character and build as the script flowed. It was beyond ordinary and which actor doesn’t like that? Everyone likes pushing limits, researching, experimenting, taking the risk and seeing it get appreciation. There was suddenly so much more to the job that didn’t make it feel like a job anymore. And so it only gets better!”