Namashi Chakraborty says fans would hound dad Mithun Chakraborty, reveals why mom Yogeeta Bali never returned to acting

Namashi, throughout the promotions of Bad Boy, has been hyped as Mithun Chakraborty’s son. When asked how he feels that people don’t talk about the great achievements of his mother, Yogeeta Bali, who has done over a hundred films in her career before quitting acting in 1980’s, the 30-year-old says, “It’s not that, it is because my mom retired 38 years ago. Had my mom been active, we would have definitely mentioned her. I don’t think Esha Deol is only known as Dharmendra’s daughter, she is also known as Hema Malini’s daughter. Janhvi and Khushi are, even now, known as Sridevi’s daughters. It’s just that my mom completely vanished from the limelight and she didn’t even want to be in the limelight. So, I think, this is one reason why my father is talked about more, but I agree with your point, I am also Yogeeta Bali’s son.”

Talking about his mother’s acting career, he added, “I have seen some of them, the ones where she acted with my father.” Namashi then shared how Bali feels “embarrassed” revising her films now. “She feels embarrassed seeing these, she says bandh karo, bandh karo (stop this right away), especially the ones she did later in her career (before quitting acting). But she has done 110 films, I love her film Parde Ke Peechey (1971). She started working when she was fourteen, she was a child, so she is very embarrassed about all that.”

He then shared how she continued getting offers after retiring. He shared, “A lot of filmmakers approached my mother as soon as we shifted back to Mumbai in 2007. But she rejected all the offers, she said ‘No, I am happy with my four children and 11 dogs, so it is a busy job to take care of 15 children.”

What is the most challenging part of being Mithun Chakraborty and Yogeeta Bali’s son? Namashi chuckles and says, “The fact that people ask me this.”

“Privilege has its pros and cons. I have been very special everywhere I go. Today, the media is talking to me because I am Mithun Chakraborty and Yogeeta Bali’s son. Someone told me I look like my father and I have the eyes of my mother. So there is a recall value, there is a goodwill. The pressure is only that people expect too much out of you. There is so much attention to how good or bad he or she is that you get lost. I hope I am judged for who I am and not the legacy that I come from.”

Namashi’s film was scheduled to release in 2021, he has lost two years of his career in waiting for his debut film to come out. Post-pandemic, most actors are failing to impress their audiences, as a newcomer, is he prepared for the changed times? “I am ready to stretch myself.”

He adds, “I think these are people who are already established so they have a lot (of responsibility), the industry banks on these people to do well. I am a newcomer so I don’t have the pressure of the box-office but I definitely have the pressure to do better work. And in today’s times with web-series coming in, so much of social media coming in talent can be tapped even on your phone, people are making lakhs of rupees by making reels, so today the need to reach people has become immense. But, at the end of the day an actor’s journey will always be an actor’s. If you do not stretch yourself… If my father only played disco-dancer all his life, he would not survive. He played Krishnan Iyer in Agneepath (1990), he played Jallaad in Jallaad (1995), Ramakrishna Paramahansa (in Swami Vivekananda 1998), that’s why he could survive 47 years, and counting, in the film industry. So I have inspiration at home. So I am open to any platform, any language, any medium that excites me.”

For every newcomer, star-kid or not, there is a lot of competition in the industry and it appears like there are camps that favour only a certain breed of actors. While Mithun’s contemporaries like Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan and other have tweeted in support of the film, there are some who are known to only encourage star-kids from their close friend circle. On this, Namashi says, “One thing needs to be understood and that is the fact that I have decided to become an actor, so I should be prepared for the challenges, the pluses, the minuses that come my way. I don’t know anything about these camps. I am an independent actor, I don’t have an agency working for me, I don’t have a PR pushing me 365 days. I only believe in doing my work. I was fortunate I was offered a film three years ago, and all my focus has been on Bad Boy ever since and on my craft. My only priority is to get good work and I am working towards that goal.”

Namashi then opened up about how he grew up in Ooty away from Bollywood, where he lived with his family and his “father’s hotel was like a film city because all actors would stay there”.

Reminiscing about his childhood, Namashi shared, “I used to visit film sets a lot. We used to live in Ooty, which had become like a film city. Every star used to live in our hotel. My first memory of a film is with my father of course, I remember him getting ready every day, wearing various kinds of clothes. I almost questioned that maybe he is not good at his job that’s why he keeps getting fired and changing his profession until one day I realised that he is an actor.”

Namashi then remembered how Shah Rukh Khan stayed at Mithun’s Ooty hotel while shooting Koyla. He shared, “I vividly remember the shoot of Shah Rukh Khan’s Koyla. So my first visual memory of a film set was a song shoot from that movie and it has stayed with me.”

He then shared how he found it annoying that people would hound his father everywhere he went. He shared, “Everywhere he went, people would hound him everywhere for photographs, autographs, just touching him all over. I would be like what is happening?!”

Namashi and his siblings Mahaakshay, Dishani and Ushmey have grown up away from the limelight, as opposed to the star-kids today. Was it Mithun and Yogeeta’s conscious decision to keep them away from the focus. When asked if he now feels that he should have been papped as much as Taimur Ali Khan gets papped now? “Pap culture is so western. We are trying to imitate the west. We are too busy getting papped, talking about star-kids and people in general but that doesn’t help, only good movies make the industry, and our focus should be on that. With this new culture there is no exclusivity… (Why do you think) people still crave to get an interview with my father,” Namashi concludes.