The hot Karishma Sharma, whose new web-series Hum has just started streaming on ALTBalaji, thanks Ekta Kapoor for giving her career a second lease of life. “Ragini MMS Returns opened new vistas for me. Since then I have not only got Hum, again with ALTBalaji, but have grabbed a lead role in a film as well. Besides this, I am also part of Comedy Circus (Sony).

Talking about Hum, she says, “I play a girl who, having seen the good things in life, will go to any extent to fulfill her dreams. I will not call her evil, for that is how most people are, today.”

Her prior TV shows have include Pavitra Rishta, Ye Hain Mohabbatein etc.

“I share a great equation with my Hum co-star, Riddhima Pandit, who teaches me bhajans and I help her to let her hair down. She is quite like her elder sister character, in real life as well.”

Shifting gears to Comedy Circus, she says, “This is my first tryst with the stand-up comedy genre. I am learning to hone my comic timing. I have great partners in Siddharth Jadhav and Mubeen Saudagar.”

“Right from my childhood days, I have loved laugh riots like Chupke Chupke and Hera Pheri. Also, I am a very chilled out person, who likes to have fun. So the humour genre is just what the doctor ordered for me.”

Are you just the glamour element or will you add to the punches?

“Like judge Sohail quipped that just because I am pretty, people don’t see my talent. Being good looking, it does take me time to get the punches and be involved in the skit. I am doing my bit, but you need to accept that, at the end of the day, I am not a stand-up artist but an actor. Having said that, there is nothing I can do about my appearance.” (smiles)

Point out that she did not get much out of her last film, Pyaar ka Panchnama 2, and she says, “Yes, but I did not have much role as well. But I used that stint to understand how cinema works. I learnt a lot from Luv Sir (Director Luv Ranjan). Kartik Aryan and Nusrat Bharucha are swell actors to rub shoulders with.”

“All this will hold me in good stead when Hotel Milan releases in September.”

Looking ahead, she will continue to dabble across all mediums. “I need good scripts, period.”

Way to go, Karishma!!