'I was making breakfast and...': Madiha Imam recalls getting offer for 'Dear Maya'

Actor Madiha Imam credited luck and fate in shaping her Bollywood career as she recalled being offered ‘Dear Maya’ from India while making breakfast.

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In an interview with a digital magazine, actor Madiha Imam, who played a pivotal role in the Bollywood title ‘Dear Maya’ opposite Manisha Koirala, recalled how she got the film out of nowhere, without any agent or publicist in India.

She said, “I remember I was making breakfast for my father and I got a call from somebody saying ‘I’m calling from India and we would like to speak to you regarding a film’. I thought it was a prank call so I hung up.”

“I was like ‘What nonsense’ and continued making eggs for myself,” she quipped.

Imam continued, “Then she called again and said ‘My name is Sunaina Bhatnagar and I used to associate with Imtiaz Ali on big films like Rockstar. I am making my first movie,’ so it was then that I got a sense and asked her if it was a Bollywood movie and she said yes. As I was well aware that I was not going to get permission so I refused her but she was adamant that I should hear the script and narrated the whole thing to me.”

The celebrity recalled that the filmmaker was looking for new faces, VJs on MTV India when she came across a video of the ‘Mujhay Vida Kar’ actor and decided to cast her, before realizing that it was on MTV Pakistan instead. After asking around in her circle, Bhatnagar got the celebrity’s contact number from ARY Musik’s team, where she used to host a show, ‘Weekend with Madiha’.

Speaking about how fate and destiny worked, Imam wondered, “Can you imagine that’s how the film happened?”

The actor shared that she then recorded an audition tape with the provided script and sent it to the filmmaker, after which she was selected from the 280 girls who auditioned for the part.

Imam also mentioned that during her time in the neighbouring country, she also got herself an agent, who started to get her more work there before the relations between both countries deteriorated, following the Uri attack in 2016.

She revealed, “I heard that Salman Khan was making a movie, to launch one of the Deol kids and then there was a Farhan Akhtar film as well in London.”

“But having said that, whatever part I got to do it was fantastic, so no regrets whatsoever,” Imam concluded.

For the unversed, Madiha Imam essayed Anna in Sunaina Bhatnagar’s debut feature ‘Dear Maya’, co-starring veteran actor Manisha Koirala and Shreya Chaudhary.

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