Actress Mita Vashisht says she was made to feel like a “dud” in the film industry

Mumbai:

Actress Mita Vashisht has worked in the Hindi film industry for three decades and is happy to have continued working on her own terms, even if people here made her feel “ill-suited”, said reported the PTI news agency. A graduate of the National School of Drama (NSD), she made her big screen debut with Yash Chopra’s Chandni in 1989, but found his voice far from the commercial space in collaboration with the filmmakers Mani Kaul, Govind Nihalani and Kumar Shahani. Mita Vashisht has gained recognition with films like Drishti, Drokhaal, Ghulam, Taal and later became a household name with TV shows like Pachpan Khambe Laal Deewarein, Swabhimaan and Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki.

Recalling a testing phase in her career, the 52-year-old woman said she found herself questioning all of her past choices when work started to slow down. She wondered if it was right to be stubborn about her beliefs or if she should have been more “sociable”.

“But after 35 years here, I know I was right to believe in myself completely and never be influenced by anything, anyone. Even if there were times when people made me feel bad, now I think I’m glad they did, “Mita Vashisht told PTI in an interview.

The “unsuitable” tag, she said, came up to her as she struggled to fit into the film industry’s “network of friends” who expected her to go to parties to be seen. But the actress said that even on days when she ended up at a party, she stood in a corner and got bored. “I didn’t do certain things not because I didn’t want to, but because I didn’t know better,” she said.

Mita recalled how she ended up at a Diwali party at Yash Chopra’s in jeans and T-shirt. “I didn’t know how great it was, so I ended up in jeans and a T-shirt! That’s all I had anyway! The other time, when I was wearing an achkan white for the Chandni first loaned to me by Dimple Kapadia. The theme was moonlight white and I didn’t have clothes that fit the description, “she said.

The actor said that while it is undeniable that the industry has camps, which are based on the idea that they “control” people, we finally find a space to flourish. “There are clicks. They can be done later as well. You can still be a stranger but suddenly you move into a certain click. The world is big enough and the industry is also thriving for many.”

Mita Vashisht now eagerly awaits her SonyLIV web series Your Honor, the Indian adaptation of the Israeli series Kvodo. Your Honor tells the story of a man to be promoted to High Court judge (Jimmy Sheirgill), but things take a turn when his son is involved in a hit and run case. Mita, who appears as a policewoman in the series, said that she had seen a few episodes of the original but had to root her modest policeman character considerably in the Indian setting.

“In Israel, the gender equation is completely equal in the sense that everyone – men and women – join the military and serve for three years. But here I play a woman operating on what has been enough a man’s territory – the police, “she said.

This role asked her to understand the psyche of a simple middle-class woman working in the police force. “She’s not like a senior police officer. She has to speak to gangsters and lawyers as a professional. So I had to understand her life. She’s a cop who wants to do the right thing. “

Directed by E Niwas, Your Honor also stars Varun Badola.

(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)