It’s nice to see regional films doing so well: Mahnaz

Mahnaz Damania best remembered as Alia Bhatt’s melancholic elder sister in Humpty Sharma ki Dulhaniya, can’t help but visit ‘home’ every few months. Excerpts from a chat
How did the acting bug bite you?
I have this yearning to explore physical expression of any kind and I feel it is something that I have developed on my own. Acting and dancing was something that came naturally to me. In fact, I lost my father at a very young age but I recently found out that my dad used to do plays.And I was pleasantly surprised! So, after going to acting school I did various projects. I did a play called Sakharam Binder by Vijay Tendulkar. It is a Marathi play that was translated in English. I got married while I was in New York and recently returned to India. I got a part in Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhaniya, the year I moved back.
Tell us about your Ahmedabad connection.
I was born and brought up in Ahmedabad, and got the classic ‘Mount Carmel-Loyola-St. Xavier’s College’ education. I was on my school’s basketball team for five years and went to this school because I wanted to be on the basketball team. Going to Dairy Den with my cousins packed in my aunt’s sidecar and gorging on Ambica na dalwada that my grandpa used to bring were my favourite rituals.
So where were you while you were away?
I feel like everything in my life follows a 3-year pattern — I get bored after every three years. Post college I worked as a flight attendant for three years because I wanted to travel the world, but then I didn’t feel like putting in a fourth year. So I enrolled in a theatre school in New York and got through. Thankfully the 3-year pattern did not repeat this time. I
studied and then worked there. The funny thing is, one of my first projects in NY was a jewellery commercial for a Rajkot jeweller! It just shows how widespread we (people from Gujarat) are.
What keeps you busy?
Currently I am doing a play that was in rehearsal for six months. There was no written script for it and we etched it out of smuggled letters. I’m hoping we get to perform in Ahmedabad and Baroda.

Would you consider doing a Gujarati film and/or play?
Yes absolutely! It makes me very happy to see regional work picking up all over the country, especially in Gujarat.