Madhoo calls 90s ‘the most difficult’ time: ‘I was forced to nap on a rock while shooting Iruvar, often had to change in open’

She remembered that while shooting Mani Ratnam’s Iruvar, she would nap on the rocks because she had no place where she could rest! “Now all of that doesn’t happen. You can say that you want make-up van and you get your privacy. There was a time I was shooting for Iruvar (1997) with Mani Ratnam sir and we were shooting somewhere in Tamil Nadu, I can’t remember the place exactly, but I was sleeping on the rocks there in the break time after eating. I was sleeping on the rock and I heard somebody saying, ‘what is the use of earning so much money, after all she has to sleep on stones.’ Now we don’t have to go through, so that’s a welcome change, especially for a female actor. Those days were difficult.”

Madhoo, who was one of the most sought after actresses of the 90’s made her comeback a few years ago and is still waiting for a breakthrough project to come her way. “An actor’s life is about waiting. These moments when we are in front of the camera, after which there is waiting till the next moment comes. So, it is what you do in the waiting period that defines how healthy and happy you are. What I have figured out for myself is that one thing I know is that I am always an actor, whether I have a stage or not. So I prepare myself everyday to be a better actor.”

Madhoo also shared that when she started working again, she had reservations on playing the role of a mother. She said, “I battled that thought in my mind. When I made my comeback, before which I had already been in the industry for more than a decade, I had decided that main bhabhi ka role nahi karungi, maa ka role nahi karungi (I won’t play a bhabhi or a mother’s role). But then I realised that what is important is to realise that it’s not that I should not be playing a mother’s role, but see what type of a mother I am playing. The fact that I didn’t want to play bhabhi or maa is a cliché and I knew I had to get out of it. I broke that barrier in my mind. I will play every role that comes to me. I even played a grandmother in Fireflies for Zee5. So why not? I’m here to act and that I’ll do.”

She said that these insecurities cropped up because she felt pressured to look young, but with time she has been more accepting of her age and is loving every moment in her life and career. On the pressure to look young, she said, “I am not going to lie, I try my best to look my best. I also like it when I appear younger than my age. I like that but I am definitely not trying to look like a 20 or a 16 year old, that would be foolish. I have not attached numbers to my age. For me it is about the feel good factor that comes from well-being. We all get a certain help from a certain doctors. We can help ourselves but it is the general energy and well-being and it comes from being content where you are in life, everything else is a cherry on the top.”