The ladies of 'Lelaki Itu' (from left) Hannah Delisha, Sophia Albarakbah and Nadia Brian. Photo Sophia Albarakbah/Instagram
Hannah Delisha, Sophia AlBarakbah and Nadia Brian, who play sisters in local drama Lelaki Itu, say they didn’t have to work too hard to play siblings in the show as they know each other in real life and are good friends.
Sophia, 30, told StarLifestyle: “One of the very first dramas I acted in, Tercipta Satu Ikatan in 2020, featured Hannah in the leading role.
“I was one of the supporting actors in that one. And with Nadia, I know her personally as we are under the same management and we have done a telemovie together.
She described working with Nadia and Hannah as a really fun experience as “they’re very sweet people”.
The actress-model, who’s also known as Sophie Koshka, continued: “Our relationship in the drama, we love each other because we are family. Since we are all friends in real life, we sort of just used that bond for our characters.
“The love that we feel is so genuine that we don’t really have to act in the drama. Even though the show is quite heavy and the role is pretty challenging, they made being on the set and playing the character a little easier.”
Hannah, 27, agreed that their off-the-set relationship is not that dissimilar from what the three sisters have in Lelaki Itu.
“Nadia is like a big sister,” said the Singaporean, whose full name is Hannah Adlina Blackburne Birch. Hannah and Nadia have worked together in the 2018 drama Aku Cinta Dia.
“Sophia is actually older than me but sometimes I feel like I’m the older one as she has that manja (sweet and innocent) characteristic (laughs).
“So yeah, we blend very well. And, in terms of finding the chemistry, it was not a problem at all.”
Lelaki Itu is a 30-episode series written by Erma Fatima, and is airing on TV3 and tonton, from Mondays to Thursdays, at 10pm.
The series also features award-winning actors Datuk Adi Putra and Nabila Huda.
It premiered on March 19 and achieved a cumulative audience reach of 6.2 million in its first week.
The drama focuses on Syed Mirza, who is husband to Sharifah Qaidah and father to three daughters. However, he feels unhappy at home as his wife – who has the upper hand in the household as she’s from a wealthy family – is controlling of everything he does.
After years of not feeling like a man at home, Mirza begins to look elsewhere in his search to claim his masculinity back.
For 32-year-old Nadia, there wasn’t a moment’s hesitation when Erma called her up about the role of Mirza’s first daughter in Lelaki Itu.
“Mama Erma was the person who discovered me when I first started out as an actress,” recalled Nadia, who appeared in the 2016 theatre production of Mak Cun D’Walei helmed by Erma.
“So anytime Mama Erma calls or texts with an offer, I’d just say yes. I am there 100%.”
Furthermore, Nadia knows it’s a privilege to be in anything that Erma is involved in as she’s revered in the industry for producing high-quality works.
“Everyone wants to be part of Erma Fatima’s production. So when she asked if I wanted to play the older sister to Hannah and Sophia – my two girls whom I love so much! – there was nothing else to say but yes.”
