Actress Nausheen Ali Sardar, who rose to fame with her debut show ‘Kkusum’ and was recently seen portraying the powerful character of Chandrika Singh Chauhan in Zee TV’s family drama ‘Vasudha’, has opened up about her selective approach to work and her love for acting challenges.

In a candid conversation with us, the actress shared that she is driven only by roles that offer substance.

“I think any role which has a lot of depth and character is amazing and exciting for me. It has to be pivotal. I don’t like flat roles. I will never play a role that I don’t enjoy. So unless I feel that, yes, this is something I have never done before, I would love to play that role. Otherwise, I have been rejecting scripts. I am not someone who will take up a project for the sake of it. By the Grace of God, I don’t need to work. I will wait for the right role and only then do it,” she said.

Explaining her on-and-off pattern on television, Nausheen said she consciously avoids burnout.

“If you see my career graph, I work for one-two years, then I take a break for one-two years, then I work again for one-two years. That is because, if I want, I can work every day, but I don’t like to exhaust myself mentally, physically and emotionally. I feel that an actor is a fragile, complex artist. There should always be a freshness of mind in a human being, instead of working like a machine. And it’s very important for me that I enjoy the atmosphere on the set, that I am relaxed, at peace and feel comfortable on the set, and that I enjoy my role. I look forward to the performance; that’s what keeps me going,” she added.

The actress also revealed an interesting contrast about her memory which helps her on set.

“I have a terrible long-term memory. I forget people and chunks of memories, like my brain just deletes clutter. But I have an excellent short-term memory. When the audition happened back then during my debut show, Kkusum, I did a 3-page monologue in one take. This audition was going on for months and over 5000 girls had auditioned all over India. In two hours, I got a call for selection by God’s grace. My script memory record to date has been: I did a 5-page monologue in ‘Beend Banoongaa Ghodi Chadhunga’ in one take, and a 12-page scene in ‘Vasudha’ where I spoke the most, also in one take. I love such acting challenges,” she said.

Recalling a funny yet tense incident from the sets of Vasudha, she shared:

“I can narrate a funny incident from Vasudha. Once I was given the wrong scene, and I reached the set. And that day our producer Arvind ji was directing. And whenever a producer is on set, be it any production house, the atmosphere is always tense and disciplined. So that day he respectfully announced on the mic that we are doing so-and-so page first, and in my head I was like, what? I don’t understand. Then the assistant director quietly came up to me, sweating and scared. ‘Ma’am, I gave you the wrong script.’ And he pleaded with his eyes. And when I saw the script, I internally freaked out… it had such difficult Sanskrit shlokas and stories from the Ramayan, so it had to be verbatim. But somehow, in that moment of fight-or-flight mode, I just glanced through it and gave the scene without any hiccups. I didn’t want to raise a complaint against the assistant, who could have been fired. He was such a hard-working kid, and mistakes happen. It’s all part of cinema.”