'Hello, how are? Khana Khake Jaana Haa!" Perplexed? Well, who can forget Hansa Parikh and the mad family we all loved so much in Khichdi. The show has been iconic in so many ways and continues to remain special even today. Amid lockdown, the show has returned to television yet again, bhai shab! We exclusively spoke to Supriya Pathak, who literally made Hansa an iconic character in Khichdi. Walking down the memory lane with us, Supriyaji shared how she was in two minds when she was offered the role, but the desire to play something unique made her pick this and the rest is history!
Ask her, what made Hansa so iconic, and Pathak, with an apparent warmth over the call, replied, "Hansa is very different from me as a person. But I fell in love with her because of her innocence. As per the brief given to me initially, she was this lovable person but at the same time very innocent. She is unaware of things happening around her, be it good or bad."
Recalling the three things she picked up for the character, she elaborated, "When I started working on the character, I just picked up two or three important points that I thought should be brought across in this person. First was the childlike belief in the good or bad. If someone tells Hansa, this is good or bad, she will believe it. She won't question it because Hansa never has any direct opinion about anything except her gajra, her jewellery. That is her area of knowledge, rest she is unaware of, and she is not embarrassed about it. The second one is the interests she has. Her interest in jewellery, makeup or looking good is truth for her, she is not doing it to impress anyone. In fact, I remember when we started working, I used to really make my dress designers quite mad because I would not wear anything which is not matching because Hansa won't wear it (laughs) and third was the laziness of the character because she was not needed to move."
She lauded writer and director, Aatish Kapadia for being an exceptional writer and said, "Apart from being a good writer and directed, the best quality in him is he is open to suggestions. So, we both thought let's use this more often. These were the little things that made her such iconic."
Comedy as a genre is very tricky. Was she always onboard to play Hansa or did she have her own apprehensions? To this, Pathak revealed, "When JD Majethia and Aatish had come to me, they have asked me which character I would like to do between Jayshree or Hansa. And very honestly, I was in a double mind because on television I realised that the character which speaks is the character which is given screen time, rest don't really get too much space. But, I, as a person, as an actor, liked Hansa more as I could do something more with it rather than Jayshree which I thought was something more straight for me to perform."
"Hansa was a character which I hadn't played before and I would love to do something like that. But there was this question of how much time I would be given, how much as a character will I be allowed to do. So, I asked Pankaj (Kapoor) obviously, whenever I have a problem, my teacher, my mentor, my friend is him. So I asked him and he told me to go with my gut, 'go with the feeling you are having'. I spoke to Aatish shortly, and he explained to me how he is looking forward to this show and character, and I decided on Hansa."
What aspects of hers that she put in Hansa? Pathak shared, "Love. I think. I really feel warmly towards humans, even Hansa felt warmly towards people. We tend to love people."
Writing for the show was the backbone. Supriya ji agreed, "Honestly, it is all Aatish. I personally feel, when he started writing Khichdi, he has this fantastic knack to write such characters and scripts. we would get the scripts in the morning and he would come to us and we would do our lines, so all in all, it was Aatish when it comes to creatively and the only person because of whom we could shoot this was JD. He was very strict as a person while we all were absolute nonsense (laughs). He was the only person who kept it going, but creatively, he never asked to do whatever, both these boys gave us the freedom to perform. Both of them were very clear as to what they wanted."
Lastly, what is that one character she is itching to play? To this, Supriya ji admitted, "I am itching to play every character. Whenever I see a film or read a book, the only thing which keeps me alive is acting and the fact that I will be offered a good role and I would be able to perform it. That is all that life means to me." We are in absolute awe of her, what about you?
