Neelam Kothari Soni has been one of the popular Bollywood actresses of the 80s and early 90s. The actress successfully carved a niche for herself with her versatility and acting prowess. While Neelam enjoyed a good fan following, her decision to quit acting while she was on top of her game came as a surprise to everyone. During her recent conversation with Pinkvilla for Woman Up S3, Neelam opened up on her decision to quit acting.
Neelam asserted, “I think because I had solid backing. I had, I came from a family that encouraged me to do whatever I want. Were they okay with me joining films? No! But then once I did decide to do it, I got complete 100 percent support from them. And then I always knew I had a fallback option if not films then what? A woman has to look forward to doing something- be it whatever, a homemaker, being a mother, being a wife, or some sort of work. You know being independent I think it's so important. Now when I felt that the films that were coming my way were not so... They weren’t great offers and I wasn’t happy doing those films, so I decided; it was the most difficult decision of my life where I said, ‘Okay you know what, I quit! I’m going to quit this when I’m on the top rather than just sort of fading away’. It was a very very hard decision and the transition from being an actress to an entrepreneur jewellery designer, was one of the most difficult transitions for me”.
Furthermore, Neelam also spoke about how she has dealt with the bad times in her life and said that it is important to give oneself the time to heal. “Going through bad times… I think there is no one particular route or solution. I think you have to give yourself time. You have to give yourself time to heal. It’s so easy for people to say that ‘Oh it's okay just forget about it and move on!’ But I think it’s very difficult. I think it does you more harm if you just try and forget about it and move on. I think you need to give yourself time to process and then move forward. It could be a month, it could be weeks, it could be whatever. I think everyone has a different route,” she added.