‘If your market value is good then you will get lead roles’

Mumbai: Four decades after starting her career, veteran actor Neena Gupta says she is finally in a space where filmmakers consider her a bankable performer.

Gupta had a career turn around following the box office success of her 2018 film ‘Badhaai Ho’ and her future projects as lead include film ‘Baa’, directed by Hardik Gajjar; R Balki’s segment of ‘Lust Stories’, anthology ‘Ishq E Naadan’ opposite with ‘Saans’ co-star Kanwaljit Singh and ‘Shiv Shastri Balboa’ alongside Anupam Kher.

The actor said getting leading lady roles in her sixties is a ‘big deal’ for her.

“This is a big deal for me. This is what I wanted throughout my career. You need that break where your film, in which you have a pivotal role, becomes a hit. That never happened to me in films, it happened on TV. When ‘Badhaai Ho’, in which I had a solid role, became successful, things changed. Then suddenly I became a very good actor. My market value rose. It is a business. If your market value is good then you will get lead roles,” Gupta told PTI in an interview.

Gupta said following her debut in 1982 with ‘Saath Saath’, starring Farooque Shaikh and Deepti Naval, she was hopeful that filmmakers would queue up outside her house, but destiny had some other plans for her.

The desire to become a ‘heroine’ wasn’t fulfilled and for the longest time in career, she was pigeonholed in ‘small parts’.

“There was a desire and dream; like in ‘Saath Saath’, although I had a small comic role, I would think I have done such a good job that people would queue up outside my house (to work with me). But it is a different business. You cannot do a small comedy part in a film and expect to become a heroine because there is a thappa (tag) on you for small parts. We would yearn to get a good part and I never got it.”

Gupta said during the 1980s and 1990s, it was a difficult to score lead roles solely on the basis of talent, be it in commercial or parallel cinema. She believes most of the filmmakers wanted to cast a ‘saleable face’.

“There was no chance of meeting the producer and director in commercial cinema. There was this parallel cinema and there again the main roles were going to Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil and if it’s a small film, then Deepti Naval. We had no chance in these films also. Shyam Benegal never gave me a major role. I have always played smaller parts in his films. So, the situation was similar in commercial cinema. It is a business; they want to take a saleable face,” said the actor, whose filmography also boasts of critically acclaimed performance is ‘Mandi’, ‘Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro’, ‘Gandhi’ and ‘Woh Chokri’.

As a performer, Gupta said her goal is now to straddle between mainstream and independent cinema. She is also clear about not picking any typical ‘mother roles’.

“I say no to stereotypical roles. And no mother roles. It is good that people are looking at women in different spaces,” she said.

The actor’s latest release is ‘Shiv Shastri Balboa’, directed by Ajayan Venugopalan.

The film is billed as a ‘fascinating tale of survival of an Indian in a small town in America’. Gupta said she found the script and her role of a Telugu-speaking woman from Hyderabad interesting.

“In tough times also she is hopeful, enjoys life and that is the best part. It is a very identifiable role as people often enjoy some moments even when they are in tough situations, they just don’t cry. It is a very interesting role,” she added.

‘Shiv Shastri Balboa’ also features Jugal Hansraj, ‘The Family Man’ actor Sharib Hashmi and Nargis Fakhri of ‘Rockstar’ fame.