Her taste is impeccable, her style, inimitable. Mataji has impressed people as the matriarch in Sasural Simar Ka. This should come as a big compliment for Jayati Bhatia, who plays Mataji in the show. For it must not have been easy for a 40 something Jayati to play a 65 year old character. 

But the seasoned actress that she is, she found a way to get into the skin of this character. Says Jayati, “I am completely opposite to my character on the show. I talk and move non stop while Mataji is very measured in her reactions. I had to slow down my reactions to be convincing as an old woman.”

But slowly and surely, she got into the skin of the character..and how! Now Jayati doesn't have to stress herself to play a character 12 years her senior. She gets plenty of help from her cast and crew. How do they do that? By referring to her as Mataji and not as Jayati. “The moment I enter the sets, the whole crew from the spot boy to the director refers to me as Mataji. As a result of this, I have started behaving like her and being motherly and caring towards everybody. I keep asking them if they need something, if everything is alright. I feel really old because of this,” laughs Jayati.

We've heard of dedication to acting and to playing different characters, but this is taking it to a different level altogether. And in Jayati's case, it's not just the whitener that makes her look old, its Jayati herself!