“I was on my way to becoming a great tragic actress” says Ratna Pathak Shah on how comedy saved her

Actors Ratna Pathak Shah and Ayesha Jhulka who are starring together in 'Happy Family Conditions Apply' were recently promoting their upcoming show in the city. During their interaction with Sneha Menon Desai from Film Companion, the actors opened up about the importance that female actors receive today

Actors Ratna Pathak Shah and Ayesha Jhulka who are starring together in 'Happy Family Conditions Apply' were recently promoting their upcoming show in the city. During their interaction with Sneha Menon Desai from Film Companion, the actors  opened up about the importance that female actors receive today, the initial years of their respective acting journeys & many more things. 

When asked about manifesting to be paired with her co-stars from the 90s, like Akshay Kumar, Salman Khan & Aamir Khan, here's what Ayesha Jhulka had to say: "I always say that I would like the sequels of 'Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar' and 'Khiladi' to be made, with the same cast. I told Mansoor Khan (director of 'Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar') that when I met him a couple of months back. I said, "you better start writing the sequel, we have to be in that. And everyone was excited about it."

Ratna Pathak Shah opened up about how being a part of comedy projects saved her from becoming a tragic heroine: “I was on my way to becoming a great tragic actress. Thankfully, 'Idhar Udhar' happened and I was relieved of this weight of becoming this ‘great actress’, aspiring to do Lady Macbeth. It gave me the chance to learn a skill.” According to her, acting is very skill dependent, like good speech, ability to perform with your body, etc. “I had very few of those skills, and I needed to learn them. Comedy gave me the chance to acquire those skills.” Further, she states that she's "thankful & deeply grateful to Anand Mahendroo (producer-director) because he was the first person who thought I was capable of doing it."

Also read: This is what Javed Akhtar wrote about Satish Kaushik after attending his last rites

When asked about an emotion that's difficult to crack while performing a scene, Ayesha revealed that she no longer can play damsel in distress.  She further expressed that how practically she had to play it in every other film she was a part of.  She said “The scene would have goons chasing on horses, and you have to scream "Bachaao!" That was something I couldn't comprehend how to do. At home, my family would actually see me screaming, rehearsing lines, and my mom would be like "What happened?!" and I'd say, "Nothing, I was rehearsing, I have to do this scene tomorrow." Today, if someone tells me I have to do something like this, I don't think I can do that. It just doesn't come from within." To which Ratna added, "she's more likely to save the hero than the hero saving her!"

Talking about the changing entourage culture in India,  Ratna expresses her displeasure, “I really can't stand this. What does it do except make you even more self-focussed, self-absorbed?" She recalls, "I have seen actors on a plane who won't even ask for a cup of coffee. The coffee is brought by the assistant. What are you, a 3 month old child, that you can't even hold your cup?!" When asked if there's a way out of this, Ratna says, "I've seen several good actors who have been adversely affected by this 'entourage business'."

With today’s changing narratives of how the industry in perceiving women characters and how Ratna and Ayesha have experienced it for themselves.  We definitely want to see more of them on-screen in the coming days.

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