I'm more liberated as an actor in my late 40s: Manisha Koirala (IANS Interview)

By Arundhuti Banerjee
Mumbai July 8 (IANS) Her 40s have been eventful and enlightening. Actress Manisha Koirala, a cancer survivor, says contrary to common perception that middle-aged female actors get less work in Bollywood, she feels liberated more than ever.
<br>”I think I am more liberated as an artiste in my late 40s. I was having a conversation with Shabana Azmiji where she was saying, ‘As an actress and as a woman, we always want to look good. How did you become so carefree?’ I think the greedy actor in me takes over at times.<br> <br>”Being a woman, I want to look pretty in every phase of my life… but I also love acting. If I have to sacrifice my vanity for a character that I am excited to play, I am ready,” Manisha, 47, told IANS in an interview.<br> <br>Having said that, Manisha pointed out that tomorrow if she is offered a role that demands glamour, she will again work on her looks.<br> <br>”Basically, my priority is the character first. I have done my share of looking glamorous on-screen in many films,” said the actress, who mesmerised audiences with her performance in “1942: A Love Story”.<br> <br>Of late, Manisha has fetched praise for her performance in Rajkumar Hirani’s “Sanju” — in which she has played the iconic Nargis Dutt — and in a web film “Lust Stories”.<br> <br>On “Sanju”, Manisha said: “I was quite nervous about how people will receive me in the film where I am playing the role of such an icon as Nargis Dutt. I was more worried because I knew how great the rest of the actors were in the film. They were brilliant and the worry was whether people would notice my performance among those great performances.<br> <br>”I am still one of those actresses who need people’s appreciation to know that I have done the right thing. Even after spending a substantial time in the entertainment business, before the release of a film, I am nervous,” laughed the “Khamoshi” actress, adding that such nervousness also occurs on the first day of the shoot.<br> <br>According to her, from her first film till today — a journey that has spanned 27 years — she has treated every film like her first film.<br> <br>”It is never ‘just another film’ for me. It is a new opportunity to act, tell a story,” said the “Bombay” actress, who has her roots in Nepal.<br> <br>In “Lust Stories”, an anthology of four films, Manisha plays a complex woman in a relationship with her on-screen husband’s best friend. She says it was the first time she has worn a swimsuit for a film.<br> <br>”That was the idea of director Dibakar Banejee. He came saying this is how he wants the scene to be, and my first reaction was like, ‘Why? I mean in my youth, I never wore a swimsuit in films’.”<br> <br>She says in real life, she loves swimming, and wears a swimsuit.<br> <br>”But on-screen? Then, Dibakar put his best effort and logic to convince me saying, ‘People have not see you in a swimsuit on-screen and that is precisely the reason we should do it.’ Well, then I took it up,” she said, breaking into a laugh.<br> <br>Manisha said she was initially reluctant to play the role as it was difficult for her to comprehend certain aspects of the character.<br> <br>”That is where I had to trust the director,” she said.<br> <br>Did she judge the character for her difficult relationship with her husband and for having an affair with his best friend?<br> <br>”Well, I went through the dilemma in my head while playing Reena. It is not easy to be non-judgmental about the character I play,” said Manisha as she recounted a conversation with the actor who played the villain in “Clockwork Orange”.<br> <br>”I met him after I finished shooting ‘Lust Stories’ and I had a conversation with him regarding the same. I agreed with what he said. We, as actors, should be non-judgmental about the characters we play on-screen, otherwise we are limiting ourselves.”<br> <br>Will she accept the role of mother that usually middle-aged women get in Bollywood film?<br> <br>”I will wait for the right role instead of the typical ones. But I think now cinema is changing and filmmakers, audiences and critics have started appreciating all kinds of cinema. Meaty roles are written for middle-aged women. If I am offered something like that, I will surely do it.”<br> <br>(Arundhuti Banerjee can be contacted at [email protected])<br> <br>—IANS<br>aru/rb/vm/sac
Source: IANS