Juhi Chawla was ‘cold’, recalls co-star Shanthi Priya: ‘Don’t think she’ll remember who I am’

Actor Shanthi Priya, who starred opposite Akshay Kumar in his first film as the lead, said that female actors in the 1990s rarely interacted with each other, unlike younger stars today. She said that in her era, there was a intense competition between women in the film industry, and everybody was keeping a track of who was signing which film.

In an interview with Bollywood Thikana, she spoke about getting cold vibes from Juhi Chawla on the set of their film Mere Sajna Saath Nibhana. She said that Juhi had her ‘mood swings’, and that they weren’t friendly with each other. She said that she first encountered Juhi on the sets of the film Bhabhi, which featured her elder sister Bhanupriya. This was also where she first met Govinda. She said that back in the ’90s, male and female co-stars would avoid sitting close to each other on set, because if they did, it would spark rumours of a romance. “Female-female they don’t even look at each other. Like now, it’s really nice to see them together, go on holidays and dinners, we never used to do that. There was so much competition, I don’t know what was the reason, why it was like that in my days,” she said.

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She said, “But during Mere Sajna Saath Nibhana, it was cold. I don’t know if she used to look at me like, ‘Oh, she’s South Indian, a new girl’, I don’t know, but that was the energy I used to get (from her). We didn’t interact much, and we didn’t have too many scenes together. Now also, if she sees me, I should remind her, I don’t think she’ll remember (who I am).”

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Shanthi Priya said that she was ‘tough competition for a lot of people’ back then, and that they were ‘lucky’ that she decided to step away from acting to focus on her family. She said that while she never fought with any female co-star, she experienced cold vibes from not only Juhi, but also Ayesha Jhulka. “You don’t make real friends in Bollywood, but only ‘real friends’ get ahead here. Even if you have the talent, it becomes difficult for people without connections and friendships to leave their mark.

Shanthi Priya worked in several South Indian films before making her Bollywood debut. She last appeared on the big screen in 1994’s Ikke Pe Ikka. She went on to work in television, and most recently appeared in the MX Player series Dharavi Bank.