MUMBAI: Actress Niki Walia personifies bonafide Indian working women. She shifted to the UK after marrying Sunny Walia in 2002 after which she has been shuffling between the two countries managing her work.  Niki is currently a mother to two twins - Sabrina and Sean.  

The actress gave a stellar performance in ALTBalaji’s Punch Beat after which actress was flooded with several offers across the mediums. She played a Punjabi mother for the first time in ZEE5’s Never Kiss Your Best Friend. Tellychakkar.com got in touch with the actress to know more about her experience. Read on: 

What references did you take for your role in NKYB? 

A lot of my friends who are typical Punjabi’s have settled into this country eons ago. They have a particular way of speaking and I kind of adapted the way they speak and put my little Niki tadka to it and brought the character to life. 

Punjabi mothers are well-established as loud, possessive and foodie; what new would you bring to the table? 

The new thing I have brought to this character is innocence & I’ve completely taken away the loudness and the stereotype attached to Punjabi mothers.  

Have playing a mother to grown-up on screen helped you in your real life?

A mother is a mother, an actor is an actor. Of course, being a mother helps to play the role but even if I wasn’t, an actor’s craft is at test when they pull off a character that isn’t like them. That’s the challenge. Similarly, I had played a mother in Astitva when I wasn’t a mother yet. 

What difference do you see in the various mediums that you are working on?

Each platform has its own pros and cons.  Web gives one more room to experiment, the roles are more interesting and diverse rather than the linear that exists on television.  However, I am not choosing work according to medium but rather what excites and challenges me.   

How do you balance between work and motherhood?

I think it’s easy, I love my work and I don’t take anything like a chore. Acting is my passion and motherhood is my instinct, hence there isn’t a factor of balancing the two. Both come out of instinct and love for the craft and my children.   

Your upcoming projects

After Never Kiss Your Best Friend I also have How To Kill Your Husband, Guilty, Tuesday's and Friday's, as well as Puncch beat Season 2 & 3 coming up.  And there a few others but it’s too early to talk about them right now. 

Here’s wishing the gorgeous actress all the luck for future projects.