Saiyami Kher thankful to R Balki for giving her opportunity

Saiyami Kher, who played a para-athlete in R Balki’s sports drama ‘Ghoomer’, expressed her gratitude towards the director for giving her the opportunity and also the audience for liking her performance in the film. She took to her ‘Instagram’ handle to share a few pictures from the sets and wrote in her long post, “If you had told me a few years ago that I’d wake up reading the praise which I’ve received for ‘Ghoomer’, I’d have never believed you. I didn’t have that faith in myself, leave alone anyone else instilling it in me. It’s hard to explain what this film means to me.”

“I was the ‘junglee’ girl who would bash up boys in school; who could eat grilled chicken every day; who aspired to be ambidextrous because my icon, Sachin Tendulkar was; who would spend hours in my parent’s restaurant trying to make a ‘rumali roti’ fly in the air; whose life revolved around her grandmother; whose most prized possession was a store-bought Indian cricket jersey; who hoped that someday, she wouldn’t need to buy it and that, maybe, one day, it’d bear her name. Sadly, that magical moment never came for me,” she added.

She continued, “But I did what I could to create glimpses of that magic in my life. When I was batting, running, swimming or smashing a shuttle, I was happy. We can’t pour it from an empty cup. So, I filled it up to the brim with sport. This ‘athlete’ image didn’t go with what a conventional ‘heroine’ was meant to be. Instead of filling the cup, I was told to empty the vessel out of everything it contains. How do I become someone else if I am still holding on to what I am? So, pour it all out.”

While being thankful to the director, she mentioned, “And Balki gave me that. This film has my blood, sweat, tears and heart. Anina is me. I am Anina. The palindrome extends beyond just a play on the name.”