‘Being away from industry helped me look at life in a different way’

Manisha Koirala said that being away from the film industry helped her to look at life differently. She tagged being in front of the camera and moving away as ‘enriching’.

Manisha, who is making her series debut with ‘Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar’, was in the national capital for its trailer launch.

Talking about how staying away from the industry affected her as a person and if the break made her a different person, Manisha, who was last seen in ‘Shehzada’ in 2023, said, “You know definitely when I was younger, I was really different but with years and many experiences that you have had you evolve and hope to evolve. So, being away from the industry also has helped me to look at life in a different way because as an actor we see ourselves differently, we see the world differently because the spotlight is always on us.”

She added that moving away from the spotlight can be a ‘great spiritual experience’.

“But when you are no longer in the centre of attention and are at the periphery of the attention, that is a great spiritual experience and a great awareness happens. It was an enriching experience when I was an actor as well as when I was away from it. Both were important for me,” she said.

On playing Mallikajaan, Manisha said, “To play Mallikajaan was really different. I can only say that it was possible because of a genius behind the camera, who directs so minutely and so much in detail that we as actors look so good on screen. We don’t know what we have done. He just takes that out from us.”

Manisha and filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali have reunited after over two decades of the series. They had first worked together in the 1996 film ‘Khamoshi: The Musical’.