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Believe it or not, National Award winning actress, Neena Gupta is just getting started. Of course, she has already given performances which have contributed in the changing course of cinema (read: Mandi, Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron, Utsav, Gandhi, Woh Chokri and more) but it is her gumption that makes her the inspiration she is, even at the age of 62.
In case you have been living under a rock, Neena Gupta recently took to Instagram to ask for work and posed as an idol to many, including Priyanka Chopra.
“I live in Mumbai and working am a good actor looking for good parts to play.”
All that veteran did was speak her heart and in no time, the millennials lapped up the counsel that was implied. In fact, Neena Gupta’s daughter, Masaba, was the first one to elaborate it to the world with her Instagram post.
Now, In an exclusive interview to Hindustan Times, Neena Gupta has opened up about the moment and it just goes to add to the aura she has built with years of quality work and integrity.
She even expressed how emotional she felt when she read Masaba’s post, lauding her and her principles.
“I thought she’ll scold me saying, ‘you don’t know anything about social media and you are posting this rubbish’. But when I read her post, I realised she understands.”
When asked what triggered her to put herself in the spot, Neena Gupta did not hold back at all.
While talking about the same, she also revealed another incident from the past that left her red-faced. She even delved deep about the antics of the profession and the passion that makes it all work.
“There was a very nice and lengthy role in a big film and I knew that director very well but he just took someone else, who was not even a Punjabi, and this was a Punjabi woman’s role. I called him and asked ‘Punjabi ka role Maharashtrian ko de raha hai, meri umar ka? Tune mere ko kyun nahi liya?’. And he said ‘Sorry Neena, mujhe dhyaan hi nahi aaya. Mujhe laga tu toh ab Delhi mein rehti hai aur kaam nahi karti.’ After that I decided that I still have enough time to start again… mujhe koi sharam nahi hai to ask for work.
This profession is such that if you don’t work for some time, people forget you. It’s like being out of sight and out of mind. I realized that he (her husband) was working all the time and I was sitting at home waiting for him. So, I thought this is not going to work and that’s why I said that no one should leave work for anything in the world.
If you do one big commercial film and it’s a hit, everybody takes you for that particular kind of a role. My problem is that I can do variety of roles. I can look Punjabi, South Indian, gareeb and ameer too. So when filmmakers are casting, they don’t think of me because I am not slotted. I thought I will do all kinds of roles on TV and people will come to me but aisa nahi hota.”
That wasn’t all.
Neena Gupta also came clean about not using PR tactics to her favour, something actors heavily rely upon today.
“Somehow, I am genetically not fit for that. But this is the best PR I have done for myself and I didn’t even have to pay anyone to promote me.”
In my humble opinion, it is not only very bold of her to call a spade a spade, but very courageous to ask her due (in terms of work) for all those years. Thank you for teaching us an important lesson, Neena Ji. Thank you for showing us how it is done! Kudos.
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