Juhi Aslam

For Juhi Aslam of Shikohabad, reel imitates real. The 19-year-old who stands at just 3’5’’ is playing a midget in Imagine TV’s new show Baba Aiso Var Dhundo (Monday to Friday at 9.30pm).

“Ever since I can remember I have been taunted for my height. Friends, relatives, passersby on the roads have not spared a chance to make fun of me,” says Juhi, a BSc. final-year student.

The same people are queuing up for her autograph since she hit the small screen as the resilient Bharati Chauhan last week. “I got so many phone calls and congratulatory messages. The relatives who had always looked down on me are now saying how proud they felt after watching me on TV,” smiles the petite Juhi.

It was a chance encounter that led to Juhi’s selection for the family drama. A model coordinator spotted her in college and asked her to audition. “At first I laughed it off, but he insisted. He recorded my audition on his mobile camera and took it to Mumbai. Within a few days I was called to Mumbai for the shoot.”

Though Juhi had never faced the camera prior to Baba Aiso Var Dhundo, she was “at ease from the first shot itself” because she was playing herself. “Bharati suffers the same humiliation and taunts that I have been made to go through all my life. It just seemed that I was rewinding my life all over again. The only difference is that Bharati is of marriageable age while Juhi has never thought of marriage,” the Shahid Kapur and Genelia D’Souza fan smiles coyly.

So what is it about Juhi that helped her slip so easily into Bharati’s shoes, beating hundreds of other aspirants. “Imagine has told me that meri smile achhi hai.”

While she is revelling in her new-found fame, the show, Juhi hopes, will help sensitise the audience to the less fortunate. “Agar kami hai toh kya karein? We just have to accept it and make the best of our lives. People forget that I could well have been in their shoes and they in mine,” points out Juhi.