‘I don’t want to look 50’

Leena Jumani of Ganga Ki Dheej walks out of Bandini to avoid playing a 50 year old character with grey hair and dark circles.

I don’t wish to look 50 when I’m not even half the age,” says 21-year-old actor Leena Jumani, who plays the leading lady in the Sahara One daily soap,

HT Image

Ganga Ki Dheej

. “I didn’t want to wear grey hair and dark circles when I have neither. Khemi, my character in

Bandini

(Imagine), thankfully was removed on request because I’d already played a 30-plus lady for one of the time leaps. Neither couldn I have aged more, nor have become more negative than I already was on screen.”

After backing out of Bandini, which is expected to go off air next month, the actor bagged Pankhi’s character in her current daily. “At least I’m playing a the role of a girl who is closer to my actual age. But she’s different from me in a lot of ways. She’s a village belle, confined to four walls of her house because of certain traditions followed in the village. I’m not like that in any way,” laughs Jumani. She was also seen in a cameo in the weekly horror show,

Koi Aane Ko Hai

, and more recently in the daily soap

Tere Liye

.

When asked if she plans to dabble with multiple projects the way she did while working in Bandini, the actor says, “No way! Sometimes, the timings are so bad that you don’t even get to eat and sleep peacefully. And now that I’m a leading lady, I have even more reason to avoid juggling shows.” Given that every TV actor plans to enter Bollywood at some point in his or her career, does Jumani wish to make it to the big screen too? “Yeah sure,” exclaims the actor. “But there’s a time and place for everything. Right now, it’s only my show for me. Maybe two years later, I will get into movies.”