Neena Gupta says Girish Karnad predicted she would never become a ‘heroine’, reveals the biggest mistake of her career

Neena Gupta spoke about the time when playing the role of a 'lallu ladki' turned out to be the biggest mistake of her career.

Neena Gupta was last seen in Sony LIV's Charlie Chopra. (Photo: Neena Gupta/Instagram)

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Neena Gupta, who has been very candid about her experiences in life, recently opened up about the time when she was offered the role of a ‘lallu ladki’ (silly girl) over and over again after her appearance in the 1982 film Saath Saath. Neena, who was speaking at the Sharjah International Book Fair, shared that she imagined that after delivering a great performance, people would be queuing outside her doors with offers but she had no idea about the business of entertainment.

Neena played a bespectacled geeky girl in Saath Saath whose catchphrase ‘Main na kehti thi’ became very popular at the time. Speaking about that role, Neena shared, “I got an offer to do a role of kind of a comedian girl where I play a ‘lallu ladki’ who says ‘main na kehti thi’. It became a big hit. And I remember I went for the premiere party and I met Girish Karnad there who I knew really well.” Neena recalled how Girish predicted that since her role had become such a favourite, she would never get a chance to play the lead role after this.

“He said now you will never get a heroine role, you will never get a lead. And that’s what happened. Because once you do a comedy, especially a woman, then you are finished. They cannot imagine you in a romantic lead role. And for many years, I got offers to do the same role, same clothes, same spectacles, same everything,” she recalled. Neena said that she was still struggling at the time but had to refuse many such offers which was hard for her as she needed the money.

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“This is business and nobody was there to guide me,” she said. Speaking about her background from the National School of Drama, Neena recalled that she would often think that she is a great actor and as soon as she gets discovered, there would be no looking back. “I was from National School of Drama and I used to think that I’m a very good actor and I’ll come to Bombay and I’ll do one role and everybody will come and there will be lines outside my door offering me work because I’m very good,” she recalled with a laugh. Neena reflected at those days in her life and said, “I didn’t know that this is a business. And I didn’t know the rules of the business so I made a lot of mistakes.”

Neena was recently seen in the Sony LIV series Charlie Chopra and the Netflix anthology Lust Stories 2.

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