Dinnertime ‘Table For Everyone’ conversation with Kubbra Sait

I don't think you really have an evening like this where the main objective of people is to actually have conversations. You end up going to a place where you want to get through the first three questions. But when I was called to be a part of this evening, they said that it was beyond those first three questions. It's about actually communicating and talking to people. And I feel like that's something that I engage with a lot.  I feel it's important for us to not just look and judge the book by its cover. What human beings are all about. We all talk about big values and opinions. But how much of it are we even looking at finding commonality? And when you look, when you really look, I feel there's so much in common between us, as people.

I have interesting conversations with a lot of people. I truly feel like conversations are about great questions and when you do care to ask people beyond yourself then you get great answers which leads to memorable times. I've had many such conversations in so many varied settings, sometimes on a plane, sometimes in a different country,  sometimes with no words at all.

I remember being in Japan and not knowing Japanese.  I remember being stuck on a train where I had jumped the stop by two stations. And I didn't know how to get back to my station and I showed the map to a stranger, literally like tapping his shoulder and saying ‘good evening, I am lost’, with hands and saying I need to go to this place and I showed it to him on the map.  This man got off the train at the next station crossed over with me, put me on the other train and told me where to get off, crossed back to his platform, took his train and went back.  And this conversation had no words either.  It had action, it had gratitude, it had confusion. 

I have so many memories of food. I remember sitting as a child next to my grandfather. It used to be simple bread and kaccha pakka anda, the sunny side up, and some salt and pepper and he would mash this bread into the yellow and make it all runny and sticky fingers and then he would just make these, niwala, like a bite and then he would feed all the kids. It would be me, my younger brother and my cat and we all would eat it. I think that is definitely the simplest memory.

I go to the gym. I do not compromise on food. That is the secret to happiness. You should never compromise on what you feel like eating. If you like eating pizza, you should eat seven pizzas, but you should never stop eating pizza. I think one should live their life to the fullest, with all their senses. And listening to your senses is something that is really important. I don't think that anybody should or should not eat because they're in a certain profession or otherwise.

I think it was because the world was not asking me questions, I asked myself the tough one.  I really wanted to know what made me the person that I am today. Most people ascertain certain objectives to me. They say I'm bubbly, I'm happy,  I'm very bold, I'm very strong.  Why am I all those people today? Why am I that positive? So what made me turn into the person that I am today? I think we don't care enough, forget about other people. We're not actually interested in ourselves. We're so busy following a template that was given down to us, sometimes, through generation. I'm so glad that the world is changing right now because we do have people who ask questions.  When I got to know about myself and I wrote it down in the book, it felt like,  there you go, I was carrying all that baggage.  I don't need to anymore. So I took it down, put it on the floor, and walked away. And that made me happier. It made me stronger. It made me bolder. I feel that was the reason and that's what the book is about.

Yeah, yeah. Look at me. Yes. I have none. I feel light. Like a feather. It's pretty nice. I've always felt it. And now when you know why. I think through the writing of the book, I was able to connect with so many people who had similar journeys. And no journey has to be exactly the same to be similar. It's the broader strokes that give us meaning to life.

Every time. How do you not find similarities in your character?  Because your body just becomes a medium to play. A character is on the page, but then it comes to life because I'm carrying it in my body, I'm carrying it through my voice and carrying it through my eyes.  So that at some point you do need to find something that works for you. But I think for me, more than similarities, I have found no judgment towards my characters.

I feel like characters are people that you're seeing on screen. They're people. They exist somewhere.  They came out of someone's imagination because someone saw them somewhere. So this character has a little bit of everyone in them. When I'm playing it, I'm being as non-judgmental as possible about playing this character. When I finish the job, there are times when I just go like, ‘Oh my God, how can someone say this?’  But, they do. So, then I don't filter it through my judgment or my bias. I accept this character.

I've always aspired to have dinner with Ellen DeGeneres. I like her, like, a lot.

I have so many. I just climbed Kilimanjaro. I just went to Africa, that was pretty cool.

I've pretty much done so many things in my life. I've actually had a job as a salesperson, I worked as a marketeer, a host,  a model, an actor. If I wasn't an actor, I'd be a gardener. I haven't been a gardener yet.