Sofia Hayat Talks The Unforgettable

02 September 2009

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Despite being in the business for ten years it's Sofia Hayat's new movie The Unforgettable that is finally bringing her recognition.

In the lead role opposite Raji James the movie premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2008 to rave reviews. She has also penned an autobiography that talks about her difficult upbringing in a strict Muslim family.

I caught up with Sofia to talk about her new movie and how her past experiences have made her so determined to succeed.

- You new movie is The Unforgettable so can you tell me a bit about it?

It’s a story of psychological love, I play the lead role in this film, and the story is quite an intelligent film in a sense that the language is an evolution of Shakespeare but not really English. It’s beautifully written and is a true story of one of the directors.

My character she is a very confident women when you first meet her and is very beautiful, almost a bit bitchy at the beginning, but then she falls in love with this writer who doesn’t believe in love. Through their affair and passion they both fall in love and then she disappears, there’s deceit that goes on; this is the first time that he has ever fallen in love.

I won’t tell you the end of the story and why she disappeared, but it’s an unusual story of love that shows love through all the ugliness that makes love of one the greatest emotions.

- You take on the character of Padma so what was it about the character and the script that drew you to the project?

At the time I had two scripts in front of myself. I had been offered both of them, one was The Unforgettable and the other was a Bollywood film and the Bollywood films don’t tend to go into subjects seriously, Bollywood films are beautiful but it’s almost like a pantomime and it’s very beautiful and very song and dance it is quite emotional but the storylines aren’t that developed and don’t take to many risks.

But with this film there was a lot of risk taking, may character for example she was not portrayed as women in Bollywood movies are generally portrayed she was a very strong woman who knew what she wanted. 

She initially meets this guy and makes him believe in love she’s not a shy retiring type in Bollywood films generally the women are quite, even though they are strong they have this naivety about them, the man is always the strong one but Padma is strong and very independent of her thoughts and her actions.

But towards the end of the film, what I loved about her is there are so many contrasts at the beginning of the film you hate her and think she’s a bitch and by the end you just want to hold her in your arms like a baby.

- The movie did cause a bit of controversy because of the sex scenes so how comfortable were you with that and how surprised are you by the fuss?

To be honest with you when I was shooting the scenes I was very nervous, I hadn’t even done a proper screen kiss, so it was my first screen kiss and love scene all in one go. It took a whole day to shoot, we had a closed set so there were only about three people on set, but I didn’t feel sexy at all at any point I was just cacking myself, if you will excuse the expression.

I was really scarred so every time they cut to reset the camera I would run back to my room and just stare in the mirror saying ‘my name is Padme and I’m in control’ so I had to keep doing that to tell myself that I was Padme and not Sofia. 

It was difficult, I won’t say that it’s easy, but it will make it easier next time around as I understand that it’s not sexy at all. The other side where the film is coming out on 11th September, which is the month of Ramadan, and it a little bit offensive to some people because the writer and director is a Muslim and so am I. 

The fact that there is a love scene in a movie that’s coming out in the holy month has caused controversy and I have had a couple of emails, no more than two, saying ‘this is terrible and you shouldn’t be doing this’ but the thing is I’m hoping that it will bring about change.

Unfortunately in a huge part of Bollywood in India, Pakistan, especially the film industry, they think that if you show your body or kiss properly on TV then you are cheap and when I was eighteen I probably thought the same think because I was brought up that way.

Now as an adult why should women be ashamed of who they are? It doesn’t matter how fat you are or how thin you are if a woman is showing her body or doing things, especially in my culture, they think it’s really it’s really disgusting and bad and you are bad, not bad as in committing a crime but bad as in the sense that she is showing her body she’s a slag.