MUMBAI: With shows like Kkusum, Kumkum as well her present show Anupamaa produced by Rajan Shahi, Tassnim Shaikh says that she feels proud to be part of the TV industry. She has no background in acting and often feels that fate wanted her to become an actor. “Since childhood, I was very fond of watching movies and performing the way those actors did in the movies. During my school days too, I used to perform and by the time I reached an age of maturity, I felt that acting is only what I am passionate about. I did software engineering and after that journey, I landed up working in this industry, maybe destiny always wanted me to be an actor. No one in my family has any background of working in the entertainment industry, though my father and I were fond of watching movies. During my childhood, the whole family used to go to watch movies every Friday. I love performing and that is my passion and the thing I love about being an actor is that I am able to live so many characters and get recognition from people. Today whatever I have in my life is all because of my television fraternity and this industry. I am so thankful for being part of this,” she says.  

The actor is known for her negative roles. Talking about the same, she says, “Playing a negative character has been super fun. As an actor, I get to express so many emotions like love, anger, hatred and what not! A negative character can express all kinds of emotions and expressions within a free space and I completely love and enjoy playing negative shaded characters.”

Talking about what inspires her to be an actor, Tassnim says, “I have a hunger for performing the best that I can and as many roles as I can because good work is something which keeps me going on and on. Experimenting with my length of expressions is something that I love. I have always tried to bring in something different with all the characters that I have portrayed in some or the other way. I try picking up different characters and I work on my characters to make people either love them or hate them. I am always looking out for the best that I can give with every single take, in terms of expressions and things that make my character unique. Although all my roles have been fundamentally different, I have still tried to make them absolutely unique by adding my own nuances be it Mohini, Renuka or Rakhi Dave.” 

She adds, “Each and every character has its own different shade and significance that the audience has always appreciated and, yes, the feedback and the love that my audience has given me for every performance and character makes me do more than before. They inspire me every single day to be better from the previous one. I feel blessed and grateful.”

Ask her what her dream role is, and she says, “Honestly speaking, deep inside my heart, I have only one dream role which is to work with Sharukh Khan sir in a film. He is one actor who I love so much and one day for sure, I want to work with him.”