Skip to main content

Interview of the week: Everything is in the name… HELEN : Shakuntala Vidya Sharma

By himalayanreview

She is the face of a Sikkimese girl in the Nepali film Industry. A former model and a popular Hindi TV serial actress, she meets Shakuntala Vidya Sharma from Daramdin. She is ready with her new Nepali film, Helen, which is also her first home production.

 

Tell us something about yourself?

Born in a modest family, I am the middle child among three girls. Both my parents have spent their lives teaching, while I have always been more inclined towards art, unlike anyone else in the family. Acting has been my favourite form of expression. It is when I act I feel I’m letting go of everything I want to express. That is where I find myself. So maybe that’s me.

From Daramdin to Helen, how has life changed?

It isn’t much different from the real journey from Daramdin to Gangtok. Some green forests, Paddy fields, cascading waterfalls, rivers, smooth highways, and bumpy roads. So, the view, time, and place constantly change in every journey. With that change comes experience, and with that experience comes change. Life is still the same; thoughts and views are different now.

Your film Helen is all set to release; what are your expectations?

My only expectation is that those who wish to watch our film will find a way to do so, and I wish that everyone watched it.

Why Helen, what is it in a name?

Everything is in the name… HELEN.

How close is the film’s story to the reality of life?

It’s real fiction. The story may be fictitious, but the moments are something one can relate to.

This is your second film with Prashant Rasaily, the film director. What is so special about him?

I don’t know what is so special about him, but I’m sure his work is special.

You acted in a popular TV serial, Balika Vadhu. How did it happen, and how was life after that?

I decided to move to Mumbai after college in Darjeeling in 2010 and joined an acting school there. After a series of auditions, I finally managed to get into a Television series, and Balika Vadhu is one of those. After the Mumbai experience on the small screen and before Helen here in Sikkim, there have been some life-changing events. Some I have learned from my own shortfalls, and some from others. So, all this learning has definitely made me stronger and wiser, and I am ready to take bigger steps in my life.

How did the seed of acting get into you?

I must have eaten it… (Oops!!)

Is it easy for a model to be an actor?

Yes… If there's an actor inside the model.

What are the projects you are looking forward to?

I am looking forward to “projects”

Your words to the readers.

Please continue to read and share your words of encouragement to artists and dreamers. That is all that keeps them happy and moving. Thank you all.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

India’s illegal occupation of independent Sikkim has to be reversed

By himalayanreview
Extracted from Pakistan Defence India’s “Chief Executive” in Gangtok wrote: “Sikkim’s merger was necessary for Indian national interest. And we worked to that end. Maybe if the Chogyal had been smarter and played his cards better, it wouldn’t have turned out the way it did.” It is also said that the real battle was not between the Chogyal and Kazi Lendup Dorji but between their wives. On one side was Queen Hope Cook, the American wife of the Chogyal and on the other was the Belgian wife of the Kazi, Elisa-Maria Standford. “This was a proxy war between the American and the Belgian,” says former chief minister BB Gurung. But there was a third woman involved: Indira Gandhi in New Delhi. Chogyal Palden met the 24-year-old New Yorker Hope Cook in Darjeeling in 1963 and married her. For Cook, this was a dream come true: to become the queen of an independent kingdom in Shangrila. She started taking the message of Sikkimese independence to the youth, and the allegations started flying thic...
19 comments
Read more

The Gorkhas - Sons of the Soil, Pride of the Nation

By himalayanreview
 Nanda Kirati Dewan, a journalist from Assam traces the origin of the Gorkhas in India. Many people have misconceptions about the Gorkhas in India - that they are foreigners and have migrated from Nepal. There could not be a greater mistake than this. The Gorkhas are in fact the aborigines of India and they can trace their history back to ancient times. The Gorkha community is the product of Indo-Aryan and Mongoloid assimilation from ages past. As a linguistic group, they can trace their origin back to Indo-Aryan and Tibeto-Burman beginnings. In fact, the Gorkhas consist of both Indo-Aryan and Mongoloid racial groups. In the Mahabharata and Manusmriti names of Khasa are mentioned. They are in fact the Gorkhas. The Gorkhas spoke the language then known as Khaskura Khasas as a community existed in Nepal which it later changed to another ethnic name. The Lichchhavis, one of the aboriginal tribes of India originally lived in the plains of present Nepal. During the early centu...
9 comments
Read more

CLARITY ON CITIZENSHIP (Indian of Sikkimese Origin)

By himalayanreview
from Sikkim Online CLARITY ON CITIZENSHIP Indian of Sikkimese Origin On 26th April 1975, Sikkim was appointed as 22nd state of India. On that day, Sikkim Citizens, Subject holder (Sikkimese) became Indian Citizen according to “Sikkim (Citizenship) Order, 1975” which says “Every person who immediately before the 26th day of April, 1975 was a Sikkim Subject under the Sikkim Subject Regulation 1961, shall be deemed to have become a citizen of India on that day”. As the Indian Constitution does not provide dual citizenship and there exist only citizenship for the whole of country, therefore, the regulation which provided Sikkim Citizenship (Subjects) commonly known as “Sikkim Subject Regulation Act, 1961” was repealed on 13th Sep 1975 according to “Adaptation of Sikkim Laws (No.1) Order” power conferred by clause (l) of Article 371-F of the Constitution which took effect from 26th April 1975 (appointed day). A million dollar question arises here. Who were Sikkim...
5 comments
Read more