Juggun Kazim says upcoming drama Agar with Junaid Khan makes her want to continue acting

Sometimes life throws curveballs that take you down for a bit but what matters is you stand up again. After a break from “proper, intense” acting lasting seven to eight years, Juggun Kazim is back in the game and she has got her upcoming drama with Junaid Khan named Agar to thank.

In a conversation with Images, Kazmi opened up about her decision to take a step back. “I am doing a serial after seven years — actually almost eight years ago, when I returned from a drama shoot, I went through a miscarriage. They were not interconnected but I think I was so traumatised that I backed off from dramas and acting. After quite a few years, Shot Cut was my major project and then after gathering some courage, I did this drama — it required courage because I live in Lahore and this was shot in Karachi. It was quite exhausting but it was a very interesting play and a very interesting character. I’m in the lead, it’s not a cameo. Junaid and I have a track, and Hina Altaf has a track with Usama [Khan]. It’s a very interesting story,” she said.

She talked about her shooting experience and had only good things to say about her costars who revived her love for acting. “There are a couple of people connecting felt really good and I swear this project makes me want to continue acting,” she said. The Pani Jaisa Piyar actor explained that initially she just wanted to try this out but it became more than that after working with such a great production team. “Then when you talk about the cast, I got to work with Hina Khwaja Bayat, I am blown away — she’s such a phenomenal woman, such a phenomenal actor and such a phenomenal anchorperson. I got to learn so much from Hina apa, if anyone likes me in this project, the credit majorly goes to Hina Bayat who literally held my hand and made me do scenes where I knew what I had to do but I wasn’t able to do it. Obviously, if you get back into proper, intense acting after seven to eight years, it’s difficult to do. Comedy and other stuff is very easy for me, this kind of stuff I’ve had to work on.”

She praised costars Junaid, Altaf, Maheen Siddiqui, Ahmed Randhawa and Usama for being positive influences for her on set. “All of these people really love their craft so working with them has been pleasant. I don’t want to say [this is] my comeback since I left acting myself for a long time. I didn’t do anything but thank God, there were still offers — not as many as before but they still kept coming. I would like to credit Mahesh majorly for this who told me to go for it then Faisal bhai, he talked to me and convinced me lovingly. And then obviously Sultana Siddiqui, Momina bhabhi [and] Duraid, these people are family, they supported me since day one.”

Junaid told Images about the plot of the drama produced by MD Productions. “In the story Juggun is the eldest sister, like they say kamau-put — she’s the breadwinner of the family, she [works as] the principal at a school. Since she earns, her mother is a bit reluctant to get her married because it’s a normal middle class family and she thinks if she gets married and moves to another house, who will handle the finances of the house. So the mother stops the daughter from getting married.

“The younger sister is Hina Altaf and there is another who’s the youngest, they’re three sisters. I am a teacher at the same school Juggun Kazim is the principal of and we have good chemistry. We both love literature and poetry, Shakespeare is their favourite writer. Both have a very intellectual friendship that transforms into a relationship. After that they face some troubles that you will get to see in this project,” he explained.

Kazim also discussed why she chooses to focus on one project at a time. “This is one project and there’s another I am going to start working on around the end of November. Actually, my morning show [Morning at Home] is also currently on air so I can only take on one acting project at a time as I have to raise my kids, look after my house and there a thousand other things I need to do. I don’t want to take on 20 things at the same time. There is some work left to do for this serial that will be done by November. After that I will start working on the next project.”

She elaborated on why playing the main character is not a priority for her. “There are two [dramas] that I’m considering working on, they have a different story. I don’t want to keep doing the same thing over and over again. I know there a lot of people who like [it when] an actor is playing the protagonist [and] take that role in every drama because they set up an image of being a really lovely person — regardless of their gender. I prefer doing one positive role and then switching it up with a very negative role and then doing another that is positive and negative. I don’t care about playing the lead — though one has to be careful about the roles they choose — I would rather play a fun character,” she said.

She credited her husband and son for pushing her to pursue her passion. “These days I’m between Karachi and Lahore, enjoying it and missing my babies. But I have an amazing supportive husband who’s always always pushed me and encouraged me to do more. And I think the person who was most disappointed about me putting acting aside was my husband Faisal Naqvi. [He] and my son Hamza both really pushed me, I discussed this character with them and they told me to go for it. My son is 16 and he told me I need to do this. He said, ‘Mama, it makes you happy, acting is your heart and soul you should go for it.’ And the same thing with my husband, so it has been really awesome.

“If it’s a hit or not, that doesn’t matter to me. What is important for me is that I got the opportunity to do some great work and people I worked with, my relationship further improved with them. This is what you gain in this line of work more than anything else, it’s the beautiful relationships that you create,” she added.