Ratna Pathak Shah reveals she lacked female predecessors to inspire the confidence that a woman actor like her could sustain a lifelong career.
Ratna Pathak Shah often bats for fellow senior female actors who don’t get meaty parts offered to them. In an interview with Film Companion, Ratna has now made everyone turn their attention to Waheeda Rehman. She claimed that the ecosystem is content giving the 85-year-old actor an award, but not a role of her potential.
Ratna’s statement
“When I see a Meryl Streep (74) and a Helen Mirren (78), I feel if they can do it, so can I. And I’m sorry that a Waheeda Rehman in our country doesn’t get the parts that she deserves. What a fabulous woman, and what a fabulous actress she is! All they want to do is give her a little award and stick her in one corner. Really? Give her a good role for Christ’s sake. Keep the award,” Ratna said in the interview.
Previously, Ratna has batted for fellow actor Deepti Naval, who didn’t get the kind of roles she deserved over the years. Deepti was last seen as Kalki Koechlin’s mother in Pushan Kripalani’s Goldfish earlier this year.
Waheeda Rehman was last seen in The Song of Scorpion, which released in Indian cinemas earlier this year. She was recently conferred upon the Dadasaheb Phalke Award.
No country for older actors
Ratna said that this lack of senior woman actors in the Indian film industry stopped her from thinking of acting as a long-term gig. “All of us have had to come to terms with the way we look. And the fact that your body is changing. And if I don’t want to fiddle with it too much, I need to accept what I am. The most revealing thing to me, as stupid as it seems considering who my mother was (Dina Pathak), that I thought acting has a shelf life, as a woman. That I’ll act until I’m pretty, and then I’ll do something else. I can’t imagine I thought like that, but I did,” Ratna said in the same interview.
She will be next seen in Dhak Dhak, which releases in cinemas this Friday on October 13, as a Punjabi biker.
Disclaimer: Except the headline and synopsis, this story has been taken from the HT News Service.