In April, actress Zoa Morani, daughter of film producer Karim Morani tested positive for COVID-19. After donating blood for plasma therapy trials, she described her experience as "super cool." In her last film, Taish, a Bejoy Nambiar directed thriller drama which released this year on ZEE5, Morani received much acclaim for her role as 'Mahi'. She shares screen space with Bollywood star Sonakshi Sinha in the upcoming Reema Kagti web series, Fallen. In an interview with THE WEEK, she talks about her films, health and what the future holds for her.
Excerpts:
On her role in Taish
I play a bride who is getting married into a big and rich family in London. I am getting married to the younger of the two brothers and during the course of all the festivities leading up to the wedding a lot of things are suddenly revealed ...secrets related to the past of the bride and groom and the series of events that take place because of that...On the sets I was initially a bit nervous about being in the company of talented stars but everyone made me feel very comfortable and happy. We'd be playing games in between shots and spending time with each other on the sets and all this is despite the fact that we met each other for the first time on the sets of Taish.
On being diagnosed with Covid-19
It taught me to be much more grateful than I was before, especially with being constantly on the chase and complaining about everything. I think I became a lot closer to my family because we were together. They extended their full support when I was diagnosed with Covid. And I realised that you don't really need too much in life to be happy and content and when you see the struggles others are going through in life you feel so bad about being a cribber yourself.
As a Covid patient
Even today I seriously have no idea where I got the infection from. I was very, very scared. I did not have severe symptoms; they were very mild, but still the very thought of the virus sitting inside my body made me shiver. I had breathlessness and fever which lasted for 30 days. I would cough a lot and had severe fatigue which also lasted for many days. I isolated myself from everyone for two months because the symptoms started when I was at home. Then I was in hospital for seven days and then came back home and isolated myself again. At the time when I caught the infection, the virus was very new to everyone and that kind of added to the anxiety around it. My body took a big hit and so I rested a lot. Now, in hindsight it feels great to have sailed through it. I feel very lucky to have survived in the face of the virus which has taken the lives of so many around the world.
On upcoming projects
I am working on a web show, Fallen for Amazon Prime directed by Reema Kagti. I will start shooting in January for it and am so looking forward to getting back to work now after being at home for far too long.
On self-assessment of her acting career so far
I think when I started off, I was a little too overconfident and then of course the universe taught me to sit back and pull up my socks. I think it started off really rough but the experiences resulting from my films not doing well, really helped me grow as a person. The journey matters more and as time passes, I feel I'm rising a few notches higher with each successive project. Yet, right now I have absolutely no idea of where I'm going even though in the past, I was very sure of myself. Because what I
planned did not really happen, it is better to not think anymore and take each day as it comes.
