Nazia, who made her acting debut in the Hindi film Say Yes to Love, and later rose to fame through her role in Telugu film Nee Jathaga Nenundali, will be next seen in Deepak Tijori’s Tipppsy. Nazia shares her special connection with the director and what prompted her to take up the role of Iris. She says, “I was part of Deepak Tijori’s earlier film Tom, Dick and Harry Returns. We had shot a significant portion of the film, and for someone who was just venturing into movies, the experience was an absolute bliss. The minute he came and spoke to me about Tipppsy, I just jumped in because the experience of working with him on ‘Tom, Dick and Harry Returns’ was so good. In fact, without even knowing details of my character, I accepted Tipppsy.”
Sharing more about her role in Tipppsy, Nazia says, “My character’s name is Iris and she is a very bold girl. Iris comes across as someone who is not just loud in her persona but also in her presence. There are scenes in this film where I had to come out of my own inhibitions and cocoon because she is very outspoken. She is a woman, but she is step-to-step with a man and can do anything if she has to. The look of the character was very special. I had tattoos that were especially designed and selected by my director for Iris. It was a very well-thought-out role, and it did stand out. It took hours to get ready, but the experience of getting into the skin of the character was just phenomenal. It really pushed me.”
How did director Deepak Tijori help her get ready for Iris? Nazia explains, “I would describe him as an actor’s director. He is a very renowned actor and has been directing for quite a few years now. His take on set is to give a lot of creative license to his actors. He also comes from a theatre background; thus he conducted a number of workshops where we used to sit and talk about the script and at the same time give our inputs. He gave us a lot of space and comfort to embed our creativity into the character. That freedom helped us perform and give our best. I must say the experience was very different. Now when I sit and look at it, I would say that it really pushed me to a point where I thought I could not go. There were restraints concerning dates and locations, and our schedules used to be extremely hectic. Sometimes, we would get only 4 hours of sleep, and then we would go back on set. The days used to be blurry in front of us. I have worked with other heroines, parallel leads, but here, we were 5 girls put into these 5 characters, and our director had given us the restraints of our characters to quite an extent. There was a lot of space for us to improvise. All of us had clashes of differences and opinions, and that was something that we had to figure out on our own. Deepak Sir was always available for us if we needed any assurance or had doubts in our minds. We were told to sort out our own issues, and at that point in time, personally, I didn’t like it because I felt that we could have avoided the friction. But today when I sit here, it was amazing freedom given to us. Many actors aren’t given the freedom to play and express the character, and all in all, I have come out as a better actor. We had a lot of fun and made really great connections and friendships.”
Tipppsy means intoxicated or drunk, but here is a message from Nazia on the topic, “Our film is a reference to hangovers. It is about girls who are going on a bachelorette, and the drinks get spiked. We have to be very responsible in our drinking habits and vigilant and know our limits and who we are surrounded by because such situations happen. The young ones who are just coming out of college, take care of yourself.”
When asked about her focus in her career Nazia says,“As an actor, I am very greedy, and I don’t have a limitation in my head that I only want to do certain kinds of roles. I want to do every role and everything, so whatever comes my way, at this point in time, being seasoned, I feel any challenge I can accept so the sky’s the limit.”
Tipppsy will be releasing on May 10 in theatres which also stars Alankrita Sahai, Natasha Suri, Kainaat Arora, Harjinder Singh, Sonia Birje.
