Picking up a thread we had left off at our last meeting — of the need for actors exclusively for film (an idea I’m myself starting to seriously doubt) — Maya says that it’s not really feasible, no matter how hard one wishes for it to be true.
“Someone had asked me this very question two years back, and I promptly chose television over film. Ali [Zafar], later told me that ‘Maya, television bohat hogaya, abb film karo [Maya, enough of television, do film now]. I understood that two years back, that I cannot do justice to either medium at the same time. It’s not like I wouldn’t do television. But it was just luck that mujhay Parey Hut Love Teefa ke foran baad mil gai [I got PHL immediately after Teefa in Trouble]. For films, you need to take a break from television.
“Right now, unfortunately, we don’t have the luxury of choosing which director to work with in the industry. If just a handful of competent filmmakers are making films, then one can only choose to do dramas for bread and butter.”
Despite being offered roles for both notable and super-hit films (which we will not name here), Maya says that the camp system in the industry (actors, producers, directors often banding together to make movies) also creates problems for actresses — especially if they choose to say no to non-existent scripts, or ideas that sound shaky to begin with.
She tells me that one producer was taken aback when she asked to read a script. ‘Accha, aap script parrhti hain’? [Oh, you read the script?] she says he said, caught off guard.
“My reason is that if I’m saying no, then I would like to know the reason why I’m not doing your show or your movie. At the very least, it also opens the door for dialogue, where they can tell me ‘Maya, it’s not like this, but rather like this’.
Wouldn’t saying no to scripts make her appear snobbish, I enquire, especially since her film career is still blossoming?
“There is nothing wrong with being selective. When you work with good people, Ahsan Rahim and Asim Raza, when you’ve gotten a taste of what can be achieved in movies, it’s hard to go back and readjust in less-than-ideal circumstances. I cannot just blindly follow anyone. I’m not like that anymore. When I entered the industry, I followed Mahira Khan — she was selective in her work, whether in film or on television.
“Mahira nay jab bhi kaam kiya, accha kaam kiya [Whenever Mahira has done something, it’s been good work],” Maya says.
I don’t mention Verna, 7 Din Mohabbat In.
No movies then, I ask?
“I’ve said no to five film projects, two of them wanted to pair Sheheryar and me together.” Maya, though, has no problems working with Sheheryar again … in fact, she prefers it.
“I think this is because the audience doesn’t get to see many film jorris [successful pairings] on the big screen.”
She says she has been fortunate enough to have always been given projects that have good leading men either attached, or being eyed for roles. The list of actors, she says she would work with in a heartbeat, are Bilal Abbas, Ahad Raza Mir, Osman Khalid Butt, Usman Mukhtar and, of course, Sheheryar Munawar and Ali Zafar.
It is only natural that I bring up Ali Zafar and Teefa in Trouble at this time. There is a sequel in the works which, according to sources, would go on the floor later this year for, I’m assuming, a 2021 release.
Maya neither agrees nor denies her involvement in Teefa in Trouble’s sequel. Its script has yet to be written; Ali Zafar, who wrote and produced the film, I’m aware, fine-tunes dialogues and scenes until the last moment.
In the meantime (at least for the next six or so months), there are other projects she seems interested in, especially a few on television. Maya tells me that she’s interested in weighty stories, with messages, even if they fail to get ratings.