Sushmita Sen says heart attack made her realise she has ‘important unfinished business’: ‘You don’t come back from an episode like that’
Sushmita Sen opens up about overcoming a heart attack earlier this year and why ageing is no more scary for female actors. Her web show Taali is out now.
Sushmita Sen told fans about suffering a heart attack in March. (Photo: Sushmita/Instagram)
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There’s no stopping Sushmita Sen, not even a heart attack. The former Miss Universe and Bollywood star suffered the health scare in March this year, but was soon back in action. From shooting for Aarya 3 to finishing work on Taali, Sushmita has been keeping herself busy. Her latest project Taali will see her step into the role of transgender activist Shreegauri Sawant, and bring to life the challenges she faced trying to give the third gender a respectable identity.
While promoting the JioCinema show, Sushmita spoke to indianexpress.com about overcoming a heart attack and the learnings that came from the episode. “I was always in love with life, and I still am, and always will be. I think that was one of the reasons it was hard to take me like that,” she shared with a broad smile.
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The actor added that she continues to love life immensely but the incident did bring with it a few big realisations. Sushmita said, “It did make me realise that I have seriously important unfinished businesses. And I have to be more aware of what I have left to do. You don’t come back from an episode like that, all hale and hearty. It’s been four months since the heart attack and I feel fine. Everything that has happened thereafter (pauses) there’s a reason why I am still here. So let’s make it count.”
The Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya actor further spoke about ageing and how it’s considered ‘scary’. Sushmita shared that earlier female actors called it a scary thing as they had to deal with ‘screen age, old age and then all kinds of age’. She added, “But with Instagram and social media, everyone has their own movie going on in their timeline. Hence this fear of ageing has become a lot more multiplied… generally. As for actresses, our biggest fear used to be if we age, there would be no films but that’s not true anymore. So we are in a much better space today.”
Talking about coming back to work after a long break, the actor earlier shared how Aarya has been a manifestation of what she has been waiting for during the eight-year hiatus she took.
“I knew when I came back to work it would be aap ye yeh role kar lo, woh kar lo (you do this role and that part). And you need immense holding capacity to say no. Mann maar ke kehna ke yeh nahi karna (You have to say no keeping aside your misgivings). When I come back, it’s with a sense of responsibility, I want to headline a show, do an author-backed part. It has to be something solid. For that, you tell me, I will do three months of prep, do workshops, and unlearn. I wanted something like this and I got very lucky with Aarya. I approached three of the major platforms and they came back with amazing shows. With Aarya, it was a hands-down win. The script and then with Ram Madhvani coming in, it was a killer combination,” she said.
Sushmita Sen’s Taali dropped on JioCinema on August 15.
Sana Farzeen is an assistant editor at Indian Express Online and covers Entertainment across platforms. Apart from writing articles, features and opinions, she enjoys interviewing celebrities on video. An alumna of Calcutta University, Sana has previously worked with the Times Group and Tellychakkar. You can contact her at sana.farzeen@indianexpress.com. ... Read More