Ratna Pathak Shah On Maya Sarabhai: "In real life also I am similar to Maya."

Actor Ratna Pathak Shah says actors should not play a character to make it likeable by the audience and they should follow the script.

Be it the humorous Maya Sarabhai or the rigid Queen Nirmala Devi Rathore, Ratna has made the characters popular as on-screen mother.

Asked if she had to put an extra effort for those roles, Ratna told IANS: “Nobody should play a character to make it likeable. You never know which one will be liked by the audience. You better play the character as it has been written and follow the script.

“As an actor, my job is to communicate the character as the director thought of and put it down on paper. That’s how I look at it,” added the actress, who will be seen in comedy series Sarabhai vs Sarabhai: Take 2.

Does she relate to her character of Maya Sarabhai?

“There are similarities and I think as an actor we all find some element of our personality in the character we play. In real life also I am similar to Maya. The only thing is I don’t get to say everything that Maya does,” she says.

“She doesn’t believe in what everyone else does, she is going natural, doesn’t use hair dye like the way even I don’t in real life!”

Sarabhai vs Sarabhai : Take 2 will begin from May 16.

Ratna is glad that characters are still written for older actors in the Indian entertainment industry.

“We don’t just die or disappear from the society at the age of 60. We still exist. Thank God that some characters are written on this age group as well, finally. And now, women have more than just those five options - girlfriend, ‘bahu’, ‘beti’, ‘bhabhi’ and the vamp,” said the Khoobsurat actor.