Neena Gupta recalls a director gave her ‘maa behen ki gaali’

• The film industry has undergone revolution right before Neena’s eyes.
• She believes certain alterations could have been avoided.
• She is more appreciative of those that happened.

The film industry has undergone revolution right before Neena Gupta eyes. While she believes certain alterations could have been avoided, particularly the way conceited directors acted on the set. She is more appreciative of those that happened.

In a recent interview, Neena discussed the changes and recounted the one occasion when a director became nasty and insulted her in front of her coworkers. Speaking about it, she said, “I was doing a film with a very small role and I had just two-three lines in a group scene. During production, they chopped my mere two lines as well. Then I had no role. I went to the director and said, “Arre do toh linein thi woh bhi aapne kaat di (You chopped out the two lines I had). He gave me maa behen ki gaali (filthy abuses) in front of everyone… Vinod Khanna, Juhi (Chawla). And I started crying because sabke saamne (in front of everyone) he abused me.”

She added in her interview, “Ab aisa nahi hota mujhe aisa lagta hai. Ya hota hoga bas meri position aisi nahi hai (I think this doesn’t happen anymore. Or maybe it still does and it is just me who doesn’t have to deal with it anymore).”

In 2005, Neena starred as the show’s protagonist; later, in 2018, she played the lead in Badhaai Ho. She is wed to Vivek Mehra and together with former West Indies cricketer Vivian Richards, they have a daughter named Masaba Gupta. At a recent actors’ roundtable, Masaba—who is also a prominent designer and actor—spoke about her mother. “Mom was telling me that when she said yes to Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, everyone told her, ‘If you do this role of this funny girl, you will never be a lead actress’. And it was true! I think Badhaai Ho is her first lead role. At the age of 60.”

The last time we saw Neena, she was starring alongside Sanjay Mishra in Vadh and Amitabh Bachchan, Anupam Kher, Boman Irani, Parineeti Chopra, Sarika, and others in Uunchai.