Neena Gupta says she once lost a role to her friend Sunita Rajwar: ‘I feel jealous when…’

Neena Gupta, who is currently seen in Panchayat 3, recalls the time when she lost a role to her friend and co-star, Sunita Rajwar, admitting that she felt jealous.

Panchayat actress Neena Gupta says she once lost a role to Sunita Rajwar who happens to be her friend (Photos: Instagram/neenagupta/sunitarajwar)

Neena Gupta is back as Manju Devi in AmazonPrime Video’s Panchayat season 3. The actress, who is reprising her role as the Pradhan of Phurela village, has been receiving praise for her honest performance. The 64-year-old, who is busy promoting the series, revealed that despite being friends with many senior actors in the industry, she feels jealous when someone else gets a role for which she auditioned or was approached.

In a recent interview with India Today, she recalled an incident where a young filmmaker had approached for a role. She later learnt that the same filmmaker also called actor Sunita Rajwar who happens to be Neena’s good friend. “I kept wondering why would she reach out to both of us if she didn’t want to cast me. Sunita and I are very good friends but we look so different from each other, so how can one approach both of us for the same role? There are no similarities,” she joked.

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She further added that she often gets jealous when she loses a project to a contemporary. “There is a bit of jealousy. I feel jealous when my friends or contemporaries bag apart and I don’t, but I also take it in a good spirit,” she added.

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A post shared by Sunita Rajwar (@sunita_rajwar)

Interestingly, Sunita plays Kranti Devi in Panchayat. The actor recently represented her film, Santosh at the 77th Canes Film Festival in its Un Certain Regard section. Sunita, who’s been part of the industry for two decades, has appeared in films like Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon, Ek Chalis Ki Last Local, Kedarnath, Stree, Bala and Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan. Her TV shows include Jab Love Hua, Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai, Ramayan, Hitler Didi and Santoshi Maa.

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Neena, in a recent interview with Showsha, recalled the time when she would take up roles that weren’t considered good. “Need ke hisaab se it (the choice of script) has changed. Pehle zarurat thi paise ki zyada toh paise ke liye bahaut bure bure kaam karne padte the. Kai baar mai bhagwan se prarthna karti thi ki yeh picture release hi na ho. Ab mai na keh sakti hoon, pehle kabhi na nahi keh sakti thi. Jo script mujhe bahut achi lagti hai, role bahut acha lagta hai woh haan karti hoon aur jo nahin acha lagta woh nahin karti hoon (Earlier, there was a greater need for money, so one had to do very bad things. Many a time, I used to pray to God that this movie shouldn’t release. Now I can say no, I couldn’t say no before. I agree to the script that I like, and I don’t do what I don’t like.),” she revealed.

Panchayat 3 features Jitendra Kumar, Raghubir Yadav, Neena Gupta, Sanvikaa, Chandan Roy, Faisal Malik, Durgesh Kumar, Sunita Rajwar and Pankaj Jha.

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