There is nothing else that gives her more pleasure than work, says veteran actor Neena Gupta, who is growing strength to strength in her career spanning almost four decades.
In the last few years, Gupta has become one of the go-to senior performers when it comes to ‘unique’ characters in films like “Badhaai Ho!”, as well as web series “Panchayat” and “Masaba Masaba”.
Her latest release “Sardar Ka Grandson”, in which she plays Sardar, the 90-year-old grumpy matriarch who wishes to see her home in Lahore one last time, is the latest addition to that list.
“When you are young, you get all sorts of roles. When I heard the story, I loved it. I was jumping. Sometimes when somebody is narrating, you start visualizing it. Also, you don’t get a role like this, it is very rare that you get a role like this to play at my age,” the National School of Drama graduate told PTI about “Sardar Ka Grandson”, which released on Netflix Tuesday.
“I am hungry for good scripts and roles. After many days I got a good offer so I thought let’s eat this one,” she quipped.
Reflecting on her life and career, the 62-year-old actor said during her heyday she would work round-the-clock and chose to slow down to enjoy her marital life with Delhi-based chartered accountant Vivek Mehra, only to realise that she loves what she does.
“I worked so much in my life. I had a child to look after that I had no time for myself. So when I got married, I said okay, now I will not work and enjoy family life because I have never enjoyed (it). I was always working… there was no enjoyment,” she said.
“But then I realised that my enjoyment is my work. There is nothing else that gives me pleasure than my work. I am a good housewife too, I can cook, can polish shoes, etc. But my work gives me more pleasure and that’s why I will work,” Gupta added.
The actor, who is currently in Mukteshwar, said she is looking forward to doing good work.
Next up for her is “Goodbye”, also starring Amitabh Bachchan and Rashmika Mandanna, followed by sophomore season of “Masaba Masaba” (Netflix) and “Panchayat” (Amazon Prime Video), and “Dial 100”, a film alongside Manoj Bajpayee and Sakshi Tanwar.
Gupta said she has also finished writing her book.
Directed by debutante Kaashvie Nair, “Sardar Ka Grandson” also stars Arjun Kapoor, Rakul Preet Singh, Soni Razdan, Kumud Mishra, Kanwaljit Singh, and Divya Seth.