Actor Neena Gupta has revealed that after her film debut with Saath Saath (1982), she thought that filmmakers would queue up outside her house to work with her. In a new interview, Neena said that she would ‘yearn to get a good part’ but never got it. Neena also said that after four decades of her career, she is finally in a space where filmmakers consider her a bankable performer. (Also Read | Masaba Gupta reacts as mom Neena Gupta shares video of her work since 1983: ‘It’s called a career graph without…’)
Saath Saath is a drama written and directed by Raman Kumar and produced by Dilip Dhawan. Apart from Neena, it stars Farooque Shaikh, Deepti Naval, Satish Shah, Rakesh Bedi, AK Hangal, and Iftekhar among others.
In an interview with the news agency PTI, Neena said, “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.”
Talking about her projects and ‘market value’ now, Neena also said, “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.”
Neena was last seen in the recently released film Shiv Shastri Balboa. Helmed by Ajayan Venugopalan, the film also stars Anupam Kher, Jugal Hansraj, Nargis Fakhri and Sharib Hashmi in pivotal roles. It released in theatres on February 10.
She also has Anurag Basu’s Metro In Dino in the pipeline. It also features Aditya Roy Kapur, Sara Ali Khan, Konkona Sensharma, Pankaj Tripathi, Fatima Sana Shaikh, and Ali Fazal in lead roles. Billed as an anthology, the film is set to hit the theatres on December 8, 2023.