“Love for camera is my secret behind acting”: 88-year old scene stealer actor Farrukh Jafar aka Begum from Gulabo Sitabo

At 88, actor Farrukh Jafar, whose scene-stealing turn as Fatto Begum in Gulabo Sitabo is that the highlight of the movie, has retained her childlike enthusiasm and love for camera, which she considers because the secret behind her acting. I never feel nervous in doing any role. I only see the camera and my role and zip else. That’s my secret, the actor told PTI over phone from Lucknow.

Jafar plays the 95-year-old wife to Amitabh Bachchan’s 78-year-old Mirza who is awaiting his Begum’s death to finally own Fatima Mahal, the derelict mansion at the centre of the conflict within the movie streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

Begum, together with her quick repartees and a passion for Pandit Nehru , keeps a decent control over Mirza and is liable for the film’s surprise twist within the final moments.

Jafar said director Shoojit Sircar and writer Juhi Chaturvedi came to her range in Lucknow to supply her the part.

I am an enormous Amitabh Bachchan fan. i used to be like Wah! i will be able to get to figure with somebody . I had his romantic image because the star of Silsila’, a tall and handsome guy but during this film his get-up was ugly. He was playing Mirza with a fat nose and large beard, she said.

Shoojit told me Please forget that he’s Amitabh Bachchan. he’s the greedy, old Mirza and you’re his wife, Fatto Begum’. I immediately understood what he meant.

The actor said she had hoped to speak to Bachchan on the sets but the actor would disappear after doing his scenes.

One of the primary radio announcers of Vividh Bharti Lucknow in 1963, Jafar made her acting debut with 1981 movie Umrao Jaan where she played Rekha’s mother.

After her debut, roles in TV shows beckoned but it had been Shah Rukh Khan-starrer 2004 film Swades that gave her a memorable second innings in Bollywood.

In 2010, she starred in Peepli Live where her expletive-laden rants because the bidi-smoking mother-in-law made her a moment hit.

She followed it up with roles in Salman Khan-starrer Sultan , Aamir Khan-starrer Secret Superstar and Peepli Live co-star Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s Photograph .

Jafar said she also wanted to figure with Irrfan Khan but with the actor’s untimely death in April this year, it’s not possible.

I wanted to figure with Irrfan but he left us early. i actually liked him. Nawazuddin is like my child. I met him during Peepli Live’. Nobody recognised him then but he has now become famous. I need to work with him again in Photograph’, she said.

The actor credits radio for giving her a career as a performer.