I believed you’ve to be of a certain height, skin colour to be a star, says Masaba Juhi Chakraborty

An established name in the world of fashion, Masaba Gupta tried her hands at acting last year with great results. Her debut, a semi autobiographical web series titled Masaba Masaba, was received well. Though there are upcoming seasons planned for it, the designer-turned-actor wants to branch out now.

“I don’t want to play myself on screen anymore except for Masaba Masaba. I want to make sure that whatever role I choose, I can show the many layers and dimensions that I have. What I really want to do next is an out-and-out intense drama. I am going to pick stuff that will make me uncomfortable. I want to do something that shakes me up,” shares Gupta.

The 32-year-old, who is the daughter of actor Neena Gupta, says she is looking forward to 2021 and taking up new acting projects.

“A lot of people think I don’t want to do fiction, but I totally do. I don’t want to take up anything and everything that comes my way. I need to enjoy it. For as long as I can, I will continue to juggle, I enjoy multi-tasking. I really want to make sure that neither acting nor fashion suffers,” she says.

While acting has always been her first love, Gupta reveals that it was because of her mother that she didn’t take up acting as a profession. Also, she had preconceived notions about how actors in Bollywood have to be.

“I’ve always believed that you have to be a certain height, certain skin colour, certain look to be a star. Whenever you saw them, they were well turned out, they made no mistake. I think it is the democratisation of stars that we see today. We can look at them and be like, ‘hey that person looks like my cousin or reminds me of my mum’ but they are really big stars,” Gupta says.

She also asserts how now, there is no escaping a good actor, and she wants to be known as one.

“I don’t know how to tell a good script from a bad one. I have a good gut and I’m intelligent enough to trust my gut. I’ve been an audience and I know what people like to watch,” she says.