On Saba Azad acting and singing: Need a number of careers to keep interested me
WI think gone are the times when people were like, jack of all trades, king of none. You can be really good at many things as well. SABA AZAD, Actor-singer
ith Rocket Boys 2 premiering next week, actor-singer Saba Azad recalls how the series has been the biggest catalyst in her acting career. “I think because of the films that I had done in the past, people were just imagining me as a college-romance-sweet-cute [type of personality]. I was frustrated, I’ll be honest. I wasn’t getting the kind of projects that I wanted to. Rocket Boys was like a catalyst where people felt ‘Oh, we can imagine her as something else as well’. I’m very thankful to (director) Abhay (Pannu) for imagining me as (the character) Pipsy,” shares the 37-year-old.
Later this year, Azad will be seen essaying the role of iconic Kashmiri singer Raj Begum, known as the Nightingale of Kashmir, in the film Songs of Paradise. She also has the film Minimum in the pipeline, where she plays a character of Belgian descent. Apart from that, Azad will star in a short film directed by actor Naseeruddin Shah.
Azad, who is also a singer, recently sang the title track of the web series, Farzi. “Playback is also such a quick thing,” she shares. “You go to the studio, finish the song and it’s done. The next time you see it, it’s on screen. You do several songs along the way and then just sometimes forget about it. And the next time, you hear it and say, ‘Oh, it’s released.’ I love singing, I love playback. It’s just such a satisfying experience to finish something and just put it out into the world,” adds the Bhar De Hamaara Glass (Karwaan, 2018) singer.
Azad doesn’t feel the need to balance out both her acting and singing careers as she has been doing both since she was a child. “Gone are the times when people were like, ‘Jack of all trades, king of none’. That way of thinking has changed. You can be really good at many things as well. Everyone is a multi-hyphenate now, everyone is straddling a number of careers, not just one. I have ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), and I really need a number of careers to keep me interested at all times,” she concludes.