‘It’s all about giving your best’

After Homeland , Nimrat Kaur is back in an American television series. In the former Emmy-award winning show, she played an ISI agent. Now, she’s part of the second season of M. Night Shyamalan’s Wayward Pines. Kaur decided to do the show while at her sister’s wedding earlier this year. “I had not watched season one of the series when they approached me in February. I was given the script of the first episode, and I read it through the mehendi session and menu selection,” she says with a laugh, over a call from Vancouver, where the series is being shot. By the end of the ceremony, Kaur had given her nod to play a part in the science fiction thriller that’s set in a futuristic world.

The series is based on Blake Crouch’s three-part psychological thriller of the same name and executive producer Shyamalan is at the helm of the project. According to the book, Wayward Pines is an idyllic town in Idaho where all its inhabitants are trapped, and have no contact with the outside world. But then two secret agents decode the mystery and this makes the plot of the show. While the first season ended on an unenthusiastic note, the creators have promised that the second season aims to be an entirely different effort. “I am a big fan of the genre. I have watched all of Shyamalan’s movies: The Sixth Sense , Signs , The Village. I like them particularly for the emotional connect he brings into the characters, even though the genre is science fiction.” However, Kaur is yet to meet with the Indian-American director who “doesn’t come out of his city, Philadelphia. He trusts his efficient team with the work, and stays in the loop, remotely.”

For Kaur, the project comes after the blockbuster hit

Airlift . “It was one of the biggest grossers, but then, I consider it as yet another project for me. Success or not, what’s important is giving it your best.” Having said that, the actor also confesses to being extremely selective about the projects she signs. “I do what I feel would be fun to watch, for me. And it is very important that the roles I sign is different from what I have done earlier.” For instance, after

Homeland , she did get an offer to act in a big-banner series, which she rejected as the role did not excite her. It’s a decision that she does not regret at all, though the particular series “is doing extremely well now”. Just like her decision to take up

The Lunchbox , which brought Kaur to the spotlight in 2015, and the popular advertisements for the Cadbury chocolates. “My life changed after

The Lunchbox . Everybody started recognising me as an actor.” The latest Cadbury ad featuring Kaur was released a week before

The Lunchbox was premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2013. “The Cadbury ads were everywhere, and people I met at the festival were like — are you the same girl?” Indeed she is.

Wayward Pines Season 2 airs on Star World Premiere HD every Friday at 10 pm

‘It’s all about giving your best’

Actor Nimrat Kaur is happy about her choice of roles, including onein M. Night Shyamalan's series, Wayward Pines/