Bollywood actor Yami Gautam has been here for ages, giving us some power-packed performances in movies like ‘Vicky Donor’, ‘Kaabil’, ‘Uri: The Surgical Strike’, ‘Bala’, among others.
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However, after working in the industry for so many years, she now thinks that her career is on the right track. Talking about it to The Indian Express, she said, “It feels good to be finally getting on that path. No one knows the final destination, but I want to take the path where I get to do substantial roles, be a part of good stories and good cinema, be it any genre.”
“I started off really well, I began with a very unconventional role that got a very conventional success. But there came a point in the middle where things were not that great. I was working, doing films, but they were nowhere near what I’d thought I’d like to do as an actor.”
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She also felt that she was stereotyped in certain types of roles. “A damsel in distress. I was there in that loop for a good amount of time. Then it was important for me to sit back, think and reboot myself, figure what is it that I’m going to do.”
“With Uri and Bala, things just changed for me, even when I was not the only actor in the film. So, even you have to shift gears some times. I changed my thought process, I decided to get what I seek. And, now I think filmmakers and writers are also improvising and reworking the structure to create better roles for women.”
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Despite her stardom, she is hardly seen being papped outside gyms or saloons or making head-turning appearances at industry parties. That is because she thinks it may really put a lot of pressure.
Sharing an anecdote around this, she said, “Recently I reached early for a meeting, where I met somebody’s manager, somebody really senior. I had just happened to meet her. She and I were conversing and she asked me how she doesn’t see me in many parties. I didn’t understand what’s the big deal, but she insisted that I need to be seen in these places.”
“She said, ‘Until you’re not seen, you’ve not arrived’. I told her that I thought I had arrived with a very good film, but she kept on insisting that I need to network and get out, I need to up my game, and be seen everywhere. She also said, ‘you might have done a great first film, but that’s over, you’re forgotten’.”
“I told her that I will not go, because to be a part of these parties, I first have to be invited. To which she said she can get that done for me. But that’s not how I want to go, I don’t want to get myself invited, I don’t come from that thought process,” she divulged.
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Speaking of her intimate wedding and choosing to wear her mom’s saree on her D-day instead of a designer one, the actor shared, “My wedding was an extension of my personality, and my core values.”
“I am lucky to have a partner who thinks like me. Wedding is your day, you should do everything you feel like doing, which gives you happiness. No one should dictate that for you.”
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She added that once a designer denied giving her clothes.
“I’ve had the privilege to have some really good designers I can lean on. But, even in the fashion industry, there are some high-end designers who don’t give you their outfits because you are not so and so. It is the entire system. I remember I heard that about myself once. That person said, ‘No, that lehenga is not for you’, and I was like ‘What, why?!’, and they said, ‘No, just doesn’t work with that designer’.”
“It was so mean. I don’t understand what the criteria is, how can you make someone feel so bad? But it’s not true for all designers, some of them are really good with their work and their attitude.”
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That’s when she decided never to allow anyone to make her feel bad about herself. “You are doing great in whatever you’re doing, and never try to fit in someone’s ‘attire’.”
“I had it in my head that when it is my special day, it is going to be my way. It was going to be my mother’s saree, because the way I feel about it and connect with that emotion. Our rituals were very important to me, absorbing everything that we were doing was of utmost importance to us, and we did that.”
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As she rightly said, never give anyone the power to make you feel bad about yourself and the choices you have made. She definitely lives her life on her own terms and I think we should learn that from her too.