- Yehali Tahsiya Kalidasa on her role in the blockbuster Pakistani TV show ‘Sinf-e-Ahaan’
We Sri Lankans love to celebrate a success story, and in November 2021, one of our ingenue actors made waves globally when she was invited to star in a blockbuster Pakistani television drama series, “Sinf-e-Aahan”.
Now, we are no strangers to Sri Lankan creatives marking marks for themselves internationally, but what is even more inspiring is that the actor in question, Yehali Tashiya Kalidasa, is just 18 years old. An actor, model, and TikTok star, Yehali has been acting since she was 15.
We have already been hooked ever since ISPR announced its new project with a strong female cast, titled “Sinf-e-Aahan”. The upcoming drama is a joint collaboration between ISPR, Samina Humayun Saeed, Sana Shahnawaz of Next Level Entertainment, and Humayun Saeed and Shahzad Nasib of Six Sigma Plus.
Written by Umera Ahmed, “Sinf-e-Aahan”, which translates to “Women of Steel” is being directed by the maestro Nadeem Baig and was an anxiously awaited project in Pakistan as it comprises some of the finest actresses on Pakistan television; namely Sajal Aly, Yumna Zaidi, Kubra Khan, Syra Yusuf, and Ramsha Khan, in pivotal roles.
According to its creators, “Sinf-e-Aahan” is one of the biggest and most expensive dramas to be made in the history of Pakistani dramas on television, and tells stories of six female cadets with lives and perceptions of their own, bound by their love for the Pakistan Army. “Sinf-e-Ahaan” is a unique show that talks about women’s strength but also depicts their weaknesses which they gradually but courageously overcome to become stronger i.e. “Sinf-e-Aahan” or the women of steel.
Shot in the earlier months of 2021, the drama, which consists of 26 episodes, began airing late November 2021, with Yehali’s debut in the fifth episode as Sri Lankan cadet Nathmy Perera airing on Christmas Day, and has received glowing reviews. One such review, by Zahra Mirza of Reviewit.pk said: “The acting of Yehali was effortless and she brought in a new level of freshness and dimension to the story.”
Yehali’s character, Nathmy Perera, is a Sri Lankan cadet who has been selected to train in Pakistan Military Academy Kakul. Nathmy Perera’s training in Pakistan is also connected to her backstory. She is not just going as a trainee but has an emotional connection to Pakistan because of her late father who was affiliated with PMA as well, and part of her wanting to train in Pakistan is to find her father’s long-lost friend Majid in order to reconnect with him.
Brunch caught up with Yehali for a quick chat to learn more about her experience and what her journey to “Sinf-e-Aahan” entailed.
From Tik Tok star to international actor
Yehali started her career a few years ago with TikTok gaining a large following on the video-sharing platform as well as other social media, eventually leading her to acting.
The first thing Yehali shared with us was how it felt to be part of a major production like “Sinf-e-Ahaan”. “I’m very excited,” Yehali said, “It was a very good experience, we finished shooting on 17 November 2021 and then I came back to Sri Lanka on 18 November, and now the episodes are being released.”
Yehali is no stranger to acting in television shows, she has previously held roles in two Sri Lankan teledramas, “Daam” and “Chalo”. Her first experience in acting was in commercials.
Looking back, Yehali shared, “When I was 15 years old, I started my career on Instagram, and through a co-ordinator called Chathura Ferosh, a commercial casting co-ordinator, I was asked to come in for a screen test for a commercial. I was kinda nervous also, but my mom, who always believes in me, said, ‘no, you can do this’. She’s a very supportive woman and she pushed me to do it. Before that, I had no idea that I could even act. From that screen test, I got selected for the Maliban Chekkers cookies commercial, and that was how acting as a career began for me.”
The Maliban Chekkers cookies commercial was aired in 2019 when Yehali was just 15, and since then she’s gone on to star in 15 more commercials, which was how she got into acting in teledramas, working with some of Sri Lanka’s biggest actors and producers, despite the fact that she had no formal training.
Yehali’s role in “Sinf-e-Ahaan” came about somewhat by chance – a friend of her father’s who is a Colonel in the Army told her about a new Pakistani TV series on women in the military looking for a Sri Lankan actress and encouraged her to share her biodata. “I didn’t think about it too much, and I didn’t really think it work out,” Yehali confided, explaining that casting for any project is never an easy process, and that producers take any number of reasons into account when casting for a role, “I was auditioning alongside professional actresses as well, and I was shortlisted, after which I did a Zoom session with the director, Nadeem Baig. They asked me to send them footage of me saying dialogue in Urdu, and then I was selected! A week after they told me, I flew to Pakistan to shoot.”
Recapping her experience within Pakistan itself, Yehali shared that the Pakistani filming process was the same as it would be in Sri Lanka, except that there were more people involved, although this increased crew did not mean that the risk of Covid-19 was taken lightly and all health and safety protocols were strictly followed to keep the cast and crew healthy. The biggest difference that Yehali noted was the length of a Pakistani TV season, with Pakistani serials making about 26 episodes as opposed to Sri Lankan serials which go up to 100 episodes or more. Yehali was still shooting full-time in Pakistan for three months though, from August to November 2021.
A woman of steel
Examining her character in “Sinf-e-Ahaa”, Nathmy Perera, Yehali shared with us that what she admired most about the character she was portraying were her sense of honour and fair play. “Nathmy supports everyone,” Yehali explained, “she’s never in competition with anyone. She has her own blessings, and she’s very talented at everything she does, and that’s the thing I like most about her.”
Shooting a foreign teledrama was not without its challenges though, with Nahtmy sharing that language was a bit of a barrier for her at first (“Sinf-e-Ahaan” is an Urdu teledrama, and the cast and crew worked in Urdu as well), but as a lover of languages, she was able to pick things up quickly as well as work off of the body language of her mentors and trainers. “They taught me Urdu and everyone supported me through the dialogues and helped me understand the meaning of my lines as well,” Yehali said, “When I went there I didn’t know a single word of Urdu. There was some Sinhala dialogue in the show too, when I speak to the character playing my mother on the show, and there’s something very exciting about seeing Sinhala dialogue in an international production like ‘Sinf-e-Ahaan’.”
The significance of portraying a Sri Lankan military woman in a show driven by female stories is not lost on Yehali. “The show talks about those people who are trying to join the army and the many sacrifices they have to make to wear that uniform. I feel very proud to be able to play a part in telling this story,” Yehali shared, adding that she has received messages from soldiers on how lucky she is to be able to wear the uniform and tell the story behind it.
With the first season of “Sinf-e-Ahaan” now out, Yehali shared that, to her knowledge, there are no plans for a second season, but in any case, she has decided to take a break from acting to pursue a much more mundane path in life (for the moment) – doing her Advanced Levels (A/Ls), where she will be sitting for her exams in German, French and Logic. Chatting with us about what she’s been hoping to do before acting took over her life, Yehali shared with us that she’d in fact always wanted to be an air hostess. “I love travelling, and my father also works with airlines. I’ve loved travelling since childhood, and to me, being an air hostess would be a great privilege.”
Acting is not a dream put to bed though, it’s also something Yehali loves and something she also wants to pursue. And after her A/Ls, well, the world will be her oyster, and we have to wait and see what she makes of it.
