Sara Ali Khan says she runs the risk of not being taken seriously due to her jokes: ‘Why can’t I have sense of humour and self-respect?’

Sara Ali Khan will be next seen in Ae Watan Mere Watan. (Photo: Sara Ali Khan/Instagram)

Are the jokes landing? The image of Sara Ali Khan, as a goofy funny actor off-screen, is in contrast to the demure image of a female star that one is usually required to have in the industry, but the actor says she is aware that her being “loud and bindaas” sometimes throws people off, who then struggle to take her “seriously”.

Even before her big screen debut with Kedarnath in 2018, Sara Ali Khan had created a public image of a confident, smart young girl with her appearance on Koffee with Karan, where she spoke about her father Saif Ali Khan, growing up with single mother Amrita Singh and her physical transformation.

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Six years later, while that image has still continued, what has been added to it is her humorous side, her goofy jokes seen during the promotions of her projects, her Instagram reels, captions and more Koffee with Karan appearances.

All that, however, comes with a price and Sara knows it now. “Because I am funny, loud, I can be bindaas, people can think that is all there to me,” she says in an interview with Indianexpress.com.

“That is also me. If I have two more cups of coffee I will be cracking NG (adult) jokes with you right now. But that doesn’t mean that this (graceful) is not me, that a bit of gravitas isn’t part of my personality. People get into extremes– this or that. Why can’t one be both? Why can’t I have a sense of humour and a sense of self respect?”

When asked if this leads to a tug of war between the image of the star and the personality, she is comfortable putting out there, Sara said it isn’t as long as people “allow me to be who I am” all the time. “Because I am silly, I am funny, that is who I am– but that is not all that I am. I run the risk of sometimes trivalising my own self, I run the risk of people not taking me seriously.”
She saw this first hand when the promo of her latest film Ae Watan Mere Watan dropped. The main reaction she sensed in people for the historical drama was a “hint of surprise.”

“People are shocked and are like, ‘What is this girl doing?’ I am proud of that. I don’t want people to think just because I am funny I am not emotional sensitive or even a good actor, because that isn’t true,” she added.

Ae Watan Mere Watan chronicles is based on the life of freedom fighter Usha Mehta, who as a brave young girl started an underground radio station to spread the message of unity during the Quit India movement. The film is set to release on Prime Video on March 21.