Taking baby steps in the film world:
So I went for the audition and 2-3 months passed by. I had grown my hair for that role as they wanted the character to wear plaits and look very simple. They did not want someone with short hair. One day, I asked my mom, since they have not called us, can I go and cut my hair? My mom told me to be patient. But I kept pestering her and finally she got fed up and called the person (whom they knew at the Rajshri office) and asked him about the role. He told her that they were thinking of getting a more established name, and mom finally allowed me to cut my hair. And sure enough, like Murphy’s Law, the week after I cut my hair, we got a call from Rajshri saying they wanted to meet us.
When Raj Babu saw me, he was horrified to see my short hair. He told us it was a big problem as the director Mr Hiren Nag from Kolkata had come down and we had to meet him. Now that you have cut your hair so short (just like a boy), we will have to make a wig for you, he said. I did a few scenes from the movie for the audition with the wig on, wearing a puff sleeve blouse and orange sari. The director liked what he saw and wanted to start shooting right away. My exams got over in March and by mid-April we started shooting for the movie. So this is how it all started...
I never made a serious effort to get into films but after I did “Abodh”, I got really interested in movies. I realized that this is my calling and this is what I wanted to do. I was a first year microbiology student and I thought along with studies, I will do small roles which will need 10 to 12 days of work. So I did two movies – “Swati” and “Awara Baap” Everybody in college knew that I had worked in movies, so all the boys used to stand in the corridor and tease me while I went to class. I hated going to college after a point.
Slowly, things changed on the professional front. I met Subhash Ghai when I was doing “Awara Baap” and my director praised me sky high to him. Subhashji then told me that he wanted to re-launch me in a leading role. We told him, We are innocent people, we don,t know anything about the industry and we just did whatever we thought was right at that point. His Karma was just getting over and he wanted me for “Ram Lakhan”, and advised me against doing small roles.
We agreed and that,s when the actual struggle began for me because till then I was doing movies just for a lark and now all of a sudden, it was going to be my profession!
Then N Chandraji saw me in a clipping from a movie I was doing and approached me for “Tezaab”. I was shooting for “Ram Lakhan” and “Tezaab” simultaneously but due to some reasons, “Ram Lakhan” got delayed and “Tezaab” released first and, of course, everything changed after that.
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