Apoorva Arora recalls bonding with Nitesh Pandey, calls Family Aaj Kal added challenge: ‘Last day pe main…’| Exclusive

Apoorva Arora is back to entertain the audience with another powerful performance in the recent series Family Aaj Kal. The show deals explores the dynamics of acceptance and open-mindedness within families and has received positive responses from the audience. 

Apoorva Arora, who plays the role of a rebellious daughter, who falls in love with a cab driver and goes to every extent to change the thinking of her parents, recently got in an exclusive conversation with DNA and talked about the show and sharing screen with Nitesh Pandey, who plays the role of her father. 

Talking about what attracted her to the role, Apoorva Arora said, "For me, the script came to me and it was so engaging that I couldn't stop reading it. I usually take a break and then I think of getting back. But I ended up reading the whole script as my life depends on it and then I decided that I should not say no to this one because this is so engaging and fun, such good writing, I should mention the writers here, Manoj Kalwani and Arundhati Bhande. And then I started thinking about why it appealed to me so much." 

She added, "This is what happens in a normal family, everyone seems cool until an argument happens. At least in our generation, people can talk to their parents about our boyfriends. Earlier even talking abut a male friend was a task but today everything is normalized. So then what is not okay today? So in this show, the family realises that their daughter is dating a cab driver and that is not okay for us. So I think every generation has their conditioning and thoughts and every younger generation is on the pedestal to make their family realise the things that they have realized outside their families. That's what attracted me."

Talking about why she said yes to Meher's character, the actress said, "Also, Meher's character was so internal. It's not like she is showing a lot of emotions on her face or there's a lot of expressions. It was absolutely zero glamour in terms of looks and makeup, and zero projection in terms of acting. So I think that was an added challenge as an actor to emote our feelings without any tool and I think that attracted me to the show."

Talking about bonding with the cast of Family Aaj Kal, Apoorva said, "So with Aakarshan, who is playing my brother Sahir in the show,  is so irritating that I thought he was the perfect cast for Sahir. If you ask him one thing, he'll give you four answers and four of them will be confusing. He and I have just been arguing but I know that we both love and respect each other a lot. He'll make sure, wherever I am, he will be taking my pictures and then he'll also call me ugly. He is such a brother to you." 

She further added the experience of working with the late actor Nitesh Pandey and said, "And with sir (Nitesh Pandey), of course, we all miss him, but I would just say, I am just so glad we got whatever time we had with an actor like him and just the fact that I was in the same room with him was a privilege, was an honour. I tried hard to bond with him because I had inhibitions that he is such a senior actor, of course, Sonali Ma'am is also a senior actor, but I have worked with her before and she is a very mischievous and fun-loving person but Nitesh sir used to open up slowly. So slowly the bond got built and later we used to fight over topics like who was on which level of Candy Crush. So we built a bond like that." 

The actress revealed why Family Aaj Kal was an added challenge for her and said, "For me, it was an added challenge because when the camera is not open, I am very fun, mischievous, I keep talking with everyone on the set. But on this set, I knew I was working with my friends, the DOP is a friend, Aakarshan is a friend, the director is a friend, so I didn't want anyone to feel that I was taking advantage of the fact that I was friends with everyone. So I was extra serious on the set. But I could hear everyone joke and I had to just zip up and just be Meher. I had to remind myself that I needed to keep Apoorva inside. Not reacting to the roasts, and jokes that everyone was indulging in, and staying in the character silently was a challenge. But on the last day, I went all out. I started playing pranks on everyone. So that was the most difficult and most fun part about Family Aaj Kal." 

Helmed by Parikshit Joshi, Family Aaj Kal is a relatable and emotional family drama that stars Nitesh Pandey, Sonali Sachdev, Prakhar Singh, Aakarshan Singh, and Apoorva Arora along with others in key roles and is available to watch on SonyLIV. 

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