The jaunty & jazzy Juggan

Juggan Kazim has showcased her warm, engaging personality in everything she does, be it acting, modelling or hosting.

A delightful presence in the entertainment industry, Juggan Kazim has showcased her warm and engaging personality in everything she does, be it acting, modelling or hosting.

Personal life

Juggan was born and raised in Lahore and did her schooling from Grammar School, completed her Intermediate in Arts from Kinnaird College and graduated from the University of Western Ontario in 2002.

“I got married to my son’s father about five-and-a-half/six years ago and when my son was two months old, I moved back to Lahore from Karachi and since then have been living here,” Juggan tells Express Tribune.

Career

Juggan is among those few celebrities who entered into the entertainment industry at a very young age. “I did my first advertisement when I was four-years-old. I’ve been working in the media since I was 14, in terms of commercial theatre,” says Juggan. Her family, however, was initially not very supportive of her career choice. “This was never the line of work that anyone in my family wanted me to take up. It’s something that I wanted to do and I fought for it, until I was old enough for them to let me be and do my own thing,” reveals Juggan .

She knew that this was the field she wanted to pursue. “When I was going abroad for my higher studies, the deal my mother made was: “I know that you love this acting/hosting/modelling nonsense, but no, it’s not going to happen; don’t even think about it. If you’re going to university, the only way you can go is if you don’t take any courses related to acting,” Juggan recalls. “The closest thing to it was media studies, so I opted for a degree in media, information and technoculture, and sociology, and a minor in psychology,” she added.

However, her love for acting made her take acting courses while working two jobs and attending university. “I started taking acting courses, which had nothing to do with university; they were with acting teachers so there was nothing coming on my transcripts. So I kept doing my acting stuff on the other end in terms of rehearsing and figuring out and learning basic skills of acting, but it was never part of my university degree.”

Since then, Juggan has appeared in television dramas, music videos, films, and also worked as a television host. So which of her projects is she the most proud of so far? “I am proud of my brand ambassadorship with Garnier but at the same time I’m also very proud of the morning show I’m doing for Express News,” says Juggan.  Speaking of her experience as a morning show host, Juggan says, “I’ve had the full support of my team. You know, you can do a show for someone, but most of the time people expect that you as an anchor made the show popular. However, what people don’t understand is the fact that a show requires teamwork, and that’s what I have got by working with these guys, so I’m quite happy with the project.”

The multi-talented celebrity identifies herself most as an actress and finds acting and hosting to be the most fulfilling. “Modelling is just something I do; it’s not who I am. Part of who I am is that I’m an actor and an anchor. Acting is something I have always wanted to do and it was in fact my main area of interest, but hosting is something I fell into, completely unexpected, and I have no regrets,” remarks Juggan. Speaking about her future plans, Juggan says, “I would like to do more acting in the future.” As for now, Juggan believes that live shows for corporate events and the morning show with Express doesn’t leave much room for anything else and she says, “I don’t want to do anything else either.”

For Juggan, pursuing a career in showbiz isn’t easy as it requires a lot of hard work. “You’ve got to be very resilient, hardworking, and a good human being. I find that in this day and age people believe that if you’re a mean person and a bit of a snob, you’ll do well in the media. But the fact is, there are more than enough badtameez people in the media already, and I don’t think I need that attitude to survive,” she explains.

Juggan concedes that criticism regarding her work can sometimes be really tough to take, but it also provides her a chance for improvement. “I have to admit that without being able to take criticism, and without improving yourself accordingly, you can’t really survive in this industry because you’ll be doing your own thing and you’ll just be any other person. Or you could actually make an effort and put together a great work and that is something you can only do if you keep improving.”

Activities & interests

In her spare time, Juggan does a lot of things from cooking to watching movies. “I enjoy cooking, love listening to music and I’m a complete movie buff, so I really enjoy watching movies. I’m not a huge fan of Bollywood movies though; more so Hollywood features and foreign films. And I do a little bit of reading every now and then but don’t get as much time as I’d like to, so it’s a pretty irregular basic interest, but cooking is a passion.”

Upcoming projects

Besides doing the morning show and hosting for corporate events, Juggan has a few projects in the pipeline. “I’m in a really good place with the morning show, and I’m doing a couple of films as well. I’m doing a Lollywood movie titled Khamosh Raho with Altaf Hussain (director) and Ghafoor Butt (producer) in which I have to dance as well, for which I’m taking dance lessons from Nigah, a dance teacher. Moreover, I’m also shooting my next ad for Garnier sometime this month. All in all I’m having fun.”

If I could play a character in any film ever made, I would play...

Eliza Doolittle from My Fair Lady. She comes from nowhere, becomes somebody, and surprises everyone with the amount of talent she has and what she becomes, and I think that that’s beautiful. I think being able to reinvent yourself is very important.

If I could meet one person (out of anyone that ever lived), I’d love to meet...

Meryl Streep.

If I had to record the cover version of any song, I’d pick...

Sanu Nehr Walay Pul Tey Bula Key. I love that song!

If I could live in another time, I’d choose...

The ‘70s in Pakistan. It was a pretty good time, it was pretty great being here in the ‘70s from what I hear  — I wasn’t born then but I keep hearing that the ‘70s were great. So the ‘70s in Pakistan is my pick. Why go anywhere else? We live in a beautiful country; it’s just unfortunately run by the wrong people right now.

If I could change one thing about myself/my life, I’d change…

My temper.

If I could learn one skill (that I don’t already know), I’d want to learn…

To speak different languages. Unfortunately I can only speak Urdu, English, Punjabi and a bit of French, and that too barely. I wish I had the knack to learn languages like people do. I’d love to speak Spanish, German, Arabic and Persian — such beautiful languages that I cannot speak because I don’t have the ear for it. Also, I would like to learn how to sing.

If I had to banish one word (from any language), it would be...

“Cannot”. I can’t do this, I can’t do that. We can do anything we want to; we just choose not to do it.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 20^th, 2011.