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‘HUM BIHARI-YO KO APNI BRANDING KARNA NAHI AATA HAI’
Last seen in the 2011 film Kucch Luv Jaisaa, it has been almost a decade since Neetu Chandra worked in any Bollywood project. But the actor, who did several regional films during this period, says it wasn’t about not getting opportunities but about her choice to not take up projects.
“Aisa nahi hai ki kaam nahi mil raha tha. I was doing a lot of theatre. I don’t come from a background where everything is handed to me on a platter, but I still did big films like Garam Masala (2005), Traffic Signal (2007), Oye Lucky Lucky Oye (2008) and 13B (2009). After my father passed away in 2009, I became more serious about other things in life,” shares Chandra, adding that it was then that she decided to turn producer.
She made Deswa (2011) in Bhojpuri and Mithila Makhaan (2016) in Maithili language, which became India’s first film in Maithili to win the prestigious National Award.
After that, Chandra reveals
Shreya Mukherjee
Rshe started travelling internationally, thus gained a lot of international projects.
“I started travelling the world after 2015. I finished a Greek film, and I am now doing a Korean TV series as well. I have a few Hollywood films lined up, and one of them is Never Back Down: Revolt, the fourth film in the Never Back Down franchise, in which I play a pivotal role,” the 36-year-old reveals.
The film is directed by Kellie Madison, and Chandra says her Taekwondo skills came in handy for her role in the film. In fact, her character was written around her skills, which happens very rarely.
“I always believe in quality more than quantity. Hum Bihari-yo ko branding karna nahin aata hai. We don’t know how to brand ourselves. We know how to work very hard and we are good at what we do. But I knew that am going to make global opportunities for myself. Now things are falling into place. This is just the beginning. I have just started and I am here to stay,” she concludes. eacting to conversations around unfairness in Bollywood, Gul Panag draws attention to how “people from nowhere have made a career for themselves” here. “The fact that opportunity exists and lets you become who you are should also be remembered. Yes, people associated with film families have better access. But, if someone wants to follow their parent’s profession, it doesn’t mean others who’re talented and looking to make it in the same field can’t do it. It’s so exhausting to hear people constantly complain even after having made it,” she tells us.
Panag, 44, goes on to add that one might get an extra opportunity for the access they have but “that’s not the be all and end all”. She continues, “Nothing helps if you don’t have talent. They’re some who might be getting it easy, but will they be able to take the legacy forward? Not unless they’re capable. This is same in every profession. So everywhere it’s as fair as you want to see it and as unfair as you want to see it,” says the actor, whose performances in web projects Pawan & Pooja and Paatal Lok garnered much praise in 2020.
This year, too, she has a strong line-up of web projects and films. Enjoying the ride, Panag says she doesn’t put one above the other. “Both [digital and theatre] are director’s medium, and my job as an actor remains the same. So the medium doesn’t matter to me, and neither does it matter how big or small my role is. What matters is if the story is incomplete without my character,” she explains.
Pointing out one difference between the mediums, Panag says the web lets people think outside the box. “In defiance to commercial cinema, script is the star here and it caters to everyone’s interest. On OTT, sophisticated tools curate content according to people’s likings… the actors, directors, writers, who weren’t getting scope earlier, now have enough work,” she says.
In terms of the content, however, Panag believes all-round change can only happen if the audience changes. “I don’t think the audiences actually held the hand of interesting choices in terms of cinema. Going to a movie is a family outing. And films that make the biggest box office collections are family entertainers… So we need the audience to open up, too,” she ends.
Actor Sonali Bendre shared this priceless throwback picture on Instagram from her younger days. Bet you can’t make out, though, if she has aged a single day since then!