Twenty-year-old Juhi Aslam is set to capture the imagination of TV audience through her role of Bharati, a three-and-ahalf feet woman with a beautiful heart and an abundance of talent in the serial Baba Aiso Varr Dhoondo on Imagine, says a media report.
It's a first of sorts not only for Juhi, but for Indian television as well. Never before has a protagonist been a dwarf both in reel and real life.
The show is an emotional tale about Bharati, who faces rejection and ridicule because she is a dwarf. She longs to find a man who will love her for the person she is.
Rather than get someone to act like a dwarf, the production house and channel decided to make their show as close as possible to reality.
And that's how Juhi, a girl from a simple middle-class family from Agra, got selected.
“I never thought something like this could happen to me,” says the ecstatic collegian, who's doing her 3rd year B. Sc.
The first time she faced the camera she was very nervous. With no prior acting experience, it was a completely new ballgame for her.
But she took the plunge head-on with her family's support and now she's getting a hang of her new profession. “I don't feel I'm acting because, in many ways, this story is close to reality for me,” she adds.
Life's not been easy, she relates and many a times she has cried asking God ‘why she was so different from the others'. “Wherever I went I had people looking at me curiously and that made me sad, ” she says.
But now all of that is a thing of the past and the person in front of all is a confident woman, who believes in herself and her abilities.
“What I thought was my drawback is my biggest strength today. I've reached this level, bagged this role only because of my height and I am very happy. I would like to tell people like me or those who feel they have something lacking in them to just believe in themselves. Bas kucch kar dikhane ka hausla hona chaihiye,” she smiles.
Baba Aiso Varr Dhoondo airs every Monday to Friday at 9.30 pm on Imagine.
