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EXCLUSIVE: Neena Gupta on Badhaai Ho success, social media posts and relationships
In an EXCLUSIVE interview with PINKVILLA, Neena Gupta spoke about the colossal success of Badhaai Ho, her character, her Instagram post and relationships. Read it on.
Badhaai Ho success is a testimony to good scripts that can work wonders at the box office. The real stars of the movie were undoubtedly Neena Gupta and Gajraj Rao, who played the onscreen husband and wife. As Badhaai Ho clocked over Rs 200 crore worldwide, we got in touch with Neena Gupta and spoke at length about the response to her character, her social media stint, her relationships. The actress, who couldn't garb her happiness, spoke candidly and made sure to sway us off with her candour.
Did the BO success of the movie surprise you? "We knew it is going to be a very good film and I saw it for the first time just 4 days before the release. Before that, whoever saw were saying it is a good film but it would do such a great business, we never thought," Neena said and added, "I feel that the most important thing is script and then comes the director and everyone else. You get such a film once in a lifetime." But does the BO success validate her choice of movies now? To this, Neena laughed off. 
"I don't understand this business so much but I am still finding it difficult to believe that something like this has happened (in reference to BO numbers)," an ecstatic Neena stated. When asked about daughter Masaba Gupta and family member's reaction to the movie, Neena exclaimed, "They loved it. Everybody in the family loved it. Some people from the road came to me and said "thank you for making such a movie", some people said that they have not seen such a good movie for a long time. Everyone is loving it and that makes me happy. "
Neena had shared on Instagram that she received a letter from Amitabh Bachchan praising the movie. Elaborating more, she expressed, "I received the letter and flowers and also we had a dinner recently and he said how much he loved the movie and how well I did the role. He was in genuine praise of everyone of us." She added, "Everybody called me, people who have not known me or worked with me personally, like Vidya Balan called me, Javed Saab, Shabana called, Javed, Saab said, "I am not surprised, I am happy." Some people said 'oh, great you are back. So, it was amazing.'"
Pata nahin nervousness mein kya bol rahi thi
Explaining about why she thinks the movie managed to strike a chord with the audience, she elaborated, "My role was of a common, middle class aged woman, there was no feminism talk or anything (in the movie), she was portrayed as the real woman that we have in such families. The treatment and the story was so nice, you have never seen such aspect of this kind of a woman before. You have never seen such kind of a relationship between a husband and wife before, in this class and age, who do not turn modern suddenly. Generally, the plot always revolves around a couple fighting against a system to bring a change but this was nothing like that. It was natural, two people loving each other."
After her Instagram post asking for work, Neena has been flooded with a lot of projects. Over a year later, we asked her how has things changed for her. "There is no shame in asking for work. Earlier, I was very hesitant, I am a very shy person, and that is why perhaps I suffered in my career too maybe that's why I did not get good parts when I was much younger, as it is very difficult for me to ask. Then I got frustrated and I was like 'what is all these false rumours, different image, and I have no work', so I decided I will ask for work, whether I get it or not is secondary. So, it is very good work coming now. I am enjoying this phase right now," a clearly euphoric Neena mentioned.
We then told her that her social media posts and pictures have been creating a stir on social media, Neena laughed and said, "I have looked like that before but no one saw me because I was not on social media or anywhere. People always saw me in the role. Now, I put my pics in shorts on social media without hesitance. I have got this "nasha" of social media and since I keep posting, I get a lot of appreciation from the followers. I have realised it is very important to be appreciated. So many of my good work has not been seen by people because they were not released or was not a hit. So here, with Badhaai Ho, it is for the first time I got a very solid team, and a good release, most importantly. So, I was lucky that all this thing got together."
About handling the sensitivity around relationships, given her seasaw past and handling the equation maturely today, she sighed, "Pata nahi. I go with the flow," and added, "If something wrong happens in life, I don't ponder so much about it and keep thinking, I move on. There are other ways. You try and find a solution to a problem but if you can't, you move on. Life is too precious to be bitter, crying and cribbing all the time. I also feel a lot of it is destiny. Whatever has to happen, happens at the right time. There is a saying, "Karam Karo aur fal ki chinta mat karo" I believe, "karam karo, fal ki chinta nahi but iccha toh rakh sakte ho na?""
About the current generation, she concluded saying, "The young actors who are coming are more confident than us, they know how to handle the business. They have more confidence and self esteem and are smarter than us. The whole thing is changing quite a lot now. I think we have become more professional now. The youngsters are really amazing, have worked with quite a few recently. "
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