After hour with Nimra Bucha

In the quest for powerful characters at home and away!

Nimra Bucha is one of those actors who don’t come on screen too often, but whenever they do, they leave an impact on viewers that echoes for a long time. Her impeccable acting skills and memorable characters fill the gap in her absence from the screen until she returns with another interesting character on television, film, or web series. Who can forget her role as an alter ego of the lead in the feature film Manto and the daring Batool Jan of Churails?

Thankful for whatever she has on her plate, Nimra admits that an actor thrives for more and  in her case, she quests for powerful and prominent characters that add to her identity as an actress. Her aim is not to appear in superficial roles in longer and trivial projects.

Kamli – Story of pain and patience

Her recent venture is the feature film Kamli, a story of three women (she is one of them) who live in a beautiful place but in difficult situations. The film is directed by Sarmad Khoosat and shot in the beautiful Soon Valley, Kallar Kahar. The next exciting project for Nimra after Kamli is her pivotal role in a television series by Disney, Ms Marvel.

Talking about Kamli, in which Nimra plays an artist (painter) and a wife of a landlord, she considers her role closely related to two other leading females in the film, Sania Saeed and Saba Qamar.

“The connection among the three female leads (Nimra Bucha, Saba Qamar, and Sania Saeed) takes the story forward. My character, a woman and an artist, is very much affected and obsessed by her surroundings and personal situations and is compelled to make decisions accordingly-right or wrong. The plot has mystery and suspense and the women’s minds are caged in difficult situations which do not let them feel alive. So yes, the plot contains mysteries.”

Sharing more details of the narrative, Nimra shared that Kamli is a women-centric story in the sense that women were in prominent roles. It is a story told from the female’s perspective that explains a lot about love and the relationship between a man and a woman.

Nimra is very fond of Sarmad’s directorial skills and often talks about her chemistry with him. She has worked in several projects with Sarmad including two feature films. She believes that the true magic happens on the screen only if the actor and director have a strong off-screen bond. Considering a long and understanding relationship with Sarmad as an asset, the actress classifies him as one of those directors who envision their projects as a dream in their mind and wish to see them come true on-screen with a responsibility.

“He is a true enthusiast. His methods are entirely different from others in translating things from paper to screen. Sarmad never compromises unless is satisfied in getting what he has conceived in his mind,”

The trust factor between the two, Nimra and Sarmad, is to a level where she doesn’t dread any character or role if it’s offered by Sarmad.  “I have never asked Sarmad for any particular role. Whenever he offered me a role, he would already be sure that I would do it better. Sometimes, despite my insistence on it being difficult and uninteresting, he eventually gets me to agree. I still don’t understand what connection people got from my character in Manto. Similarly, I am not sure how much Zeenat fits in the story of Kamli.”

Dramas – a choice or a decision

Despite being a powerhouse of acting, audiences don’t often get to see her on-screen, especially in dramas. She smiled sheepishly and said “Actually, I could not make a well-grounded relationship with television from the beginning. Perhaps, it was because I joined television a little late in my career. I started my career on television with Daam (2010) and I was in my thirties at that time. Firstly, I was not of an appropriate age for the lead roles in Pakistani dramas. Secondly, I could not find challenging characters as an actress. After I played an appalling wife having an unfaithful husband in the drama serial Ek Nazar Meri Taraf, they started offering me the same kind of roles again and again. I think the repetition of any character spoils one’s acting prowess. Hence, my career was established very gradually. Another reason for not doing much television was my kids, who were quite young at the time. In the television industry, there is no regulation of work hours.

The first and last love!

Many of us would be surprised to know that Nimra’s first love is theatre. She has studied theatre and performed in the US, UK, and Pakistan. Her love for theatre grew stronger with time. “Yes! I did a lot of theatres when my kids were young. Theatre is logistically a very viable option for a mother of growing kids. It takes only 3 to 4 hours for rehearsals and not more than 5 to 6 hours on the final performance day. The next day, I am able to cook in the morning and then go to work again. I am desperately looking forward to working in a theatre project.”

The Marvell-ous Nimra

The Churails actress is very excited about her crucial role in the television series, Ms Marvel. At the moment, she can’t divulge many details about her character but is enthusiastic about the experience.

When asked how she landed the role, she told, “There is an agent, about whom I can’t give many details, who arranged for me to audition for the series. As I have lived in the UK, so many agencies, which arrange for auditions of Pakistani actors for international projects, already know me.”

Giving the audition was another interesting story as she was in Multan at that time and her husband, who directed her in the audition, had to go to Okara. “I recorded it in Multan on my cell phone, taking directions from my husband, who was in some other city. So for the next three months, there was no response. Then one fine day, I got a call, and after having a zoom interview with Sana Amanat, one of the creators of Ms Marvel, and two other ladies, they welcomed me on board. I really could not realise how significant my role was. I asked them about the duration of my work and the location of the shoot. I always ask these things in advance because of my kids, my youngest one is still eight years old. I also asked them whether my character, but they didn’t give me any hint. By the way, I was offered some other part, not the one which I initially auditioned for.”

Nimra recalls her experience with Marvel’s team to be marvelous. “I went there in December 2020 and shot for almost two months. Then we went to Thailand to shoot another spell. I’ve been going to different locations with different teams; I have just finished my work for the series. Every time there were new actors with new storylines. We didn’t know what was to be added next.”

She further explained how cautiously Marvel and Disney’s teams worked on the project. She said, “They are very secretive. They don’t even hand you scripts in advance. Even the paper on which your scenes are written is taken back at the end of the day. Emails have too many codes to open the document. Moreover, it is counted how many times you have accessed the code in a day. So, everything is very locked and secured. They are very professional; they have made a huge investment in every character.”

There are six episodes of Ms Marvel, with three different directors, two episodes each; Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Meera Menon, and Moroccan-Belgian directors, Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. Bucha is in almost every episode in a constant, prominent, and interesting role.

This means that her character isn’t sketchy, it is a substantial role in the series – perhaps, her character has some super powers as well, she could be playing a godmother or a villain? “Let’s see,” she replied with a big laugh, adding that whatever one assumed, it was a very strong role and hoped she had done justice to it.

Interestingly, Nimra has not watched the series herself yet but expects it will do well. “I feel lucky to get it. I thank God for whatever work I get. I enjoyed doing Ms Marvel.”

When asked if she thinks our actors will finally get a chance to work on international projects -Disney, Netflix, Amazon, Hollywood – Nimra gave a rational reason. She explained, “Currently, a movement is going on which persuades international projects to exercise the colour-blind casting. One can be auditioned for any role irrespective of one’s country, nationality, colour, or cast. Moreover, they prefer to cast actors from the countries their character belongs to. For example, Humayun Saeed is performing as a Pakistani in the Netflix series, The Crown. A character introduced 20 years back could have been offered to an Indian actor or an Asian British, but now casting directors want things to look as authentic as they could. In the same way, I was cast in Ms Marvel accordingly because the story is about an American girl of Pakistani origin.”