Profile: Neena Gupta: Breathless

The Arts

India Today, May 3, 1999
May 3, 1999

NEENA GUPTA
Breathless

The actress' trademark sauciness is intact but the hard edges have softened.

By Anupama Chopra

Neena Gupta has made peace with life. On a muggy Mumbai afternoon she is donning a bad wig to play a fading actress in the over-the-top Bollywood-lives-and-scandal serial Neeyat. The shot requires her to deliver dialogue, emote a little and chew an apple. One rehearsal, one take and the scene is done -- the fifth shot of the day to be okayed in one take. It's not exactly Sunset Boulevard and Neena knows it. "This is ridiculous," she says, "but I have to do it and I do it well. See, I'm cool now. I think everything is written for you. Whatever didn't happen is my mistake. So there is no point crying. The important thing is to enjoy life now."

Serenity has come with success. Saans, directed and produced by and starring Neena, currently into its 73rd episode, has acquired cult status. It is Star Plus' flagship serial and picked up the Screen Videocon best serial and best actress award in January. And in a television first, Penguin plans to turn the screenplay into a novel, both in English and Hindi. Last week, Star Plus launched a second Neena serial Palchhin with much fanfare. Hoardings around Mumbai reminded viewers that Palchhin is a Neena Gupta production -- the cast, which includes television stars like Manohar Singh and Arun Govil, wasn't mentioned. Obviously, the "NG" tag is enough. Neena, best known for single motherhood, umpteen femme fatale roles and the ubiquitous question, "Choli ke peechhe kya hai?", has metamorphosed into a hot-shot television director. After 18 years and 40-odd serials, she has arrived.

Success suits Neena. At 40, the trademark sauciness is intact but the hard edges have softened. She is warmer, less intimidating. The glamour girl, known for her bohemian lifestyle, has matured into a woman of substance. There is a stillness about her. Her brashness has found depth. With Saans, Neena's image has taken a U-turn. The focus has shifted from her unconventional personal choices to her National School of Drama (NSD)-honed talent. The TRP-driven trade is finally taking her seriously. Says A-list television director Ravi Rai: "She has a certain clarity and honesty. She thinks differently."

Life is a flurry of production meetings, four-hour long brain-storming sessions, balancing budgets and sweating the details, down to the colour of bedsheets. Neena is a dictator on the sets, demanding punctuality, dedication and whatever aesthetics a Rs 3 lakh budget will permit. The immaturity so apparent in her first serial Dard (mostly about Neena and her lovers) has been replaced by a deft hand. "She's never stopped learning," says one of her early directors Shyam Benegal, "and that's a great thing." Television is her chosen medium of expression. Apart from making Saans and Palchhin, she is acting in Neeyat and the to-be-telecast Aangan. She also cut an eminently forgettable album ("A mistake," she candidly admits), has written an English love song and is hoping to write Saans the novel soon. It is a testimony to Neena's talent that in Saans she has made a success of television's most tired theme, adultery. Saans connects. It's not just the realistic texture and insightful writing but also Neena's restrained performance as the wronged wife who painstakingly constructs a new life. Hundreds of viewers write in offering praise, seeking advice and suggesting solutions. Neena has become their friend and counsellor. "All of us feel that nobody understands," says Neena. "Perhaps while watching Saans, people feel Neena Gupta understands."

The success has been a long time coming. Neena's career has evolved along with Indian television. She made her debut as the smouldering Ketaki in Khandaan, the original boardroom-bedroom soap. And despite a variety of roles, she spent a decade living down the rich-bitch stereotype. In 1993, she took the production plunge with Dard. In 1994 her short film Bazaar Sitaram won a national award. A year later, her second venture Gumraah was unceremoniously yanked off the air after 39 episodes. "It was a great emotional and financial setback," Neena recalls. But she struck back with Saans. Says Kanwaljeet, her co-star in both Dard and Saans: "Earlier she was intimidated by being a director. But today, she is a fine-tuned director. She really has a command over the medium."

It is interesting that the most insightful comment on urban marriage should have come from an unmarried woman. But all the delving into marital muck hasn't turned her off. She's been courted by a string of celebrated men, was engaged twice and still hopes to make it to the altar someday. But there hasn't been anyone "smashing" for years. "Men don't give me bhao anymore," she laughs. "Perhaps they go for younger women. Life is comfortable but I feel that there should be a guy. I'm happy but I could be happier."

Emotional sustenance comes from her 10-year-old daughter Masaba -- "Motherhood has been the most rewarding experience of my life" -- and her father, who she says, "does all the dirty jobs like taxes and the gas bills". Neena's father R.N. Gupta moved from Delhi to Mumbai five years ago after her mother died. Since then her unorthodox family has held together. "She's a self-made woman and she's worked very hard," he says. Her family initially didn't approve of her career choice. But, says Gupta, "You can't stop children from growing, you must respect their desires." He has always supported her -- when she made the headline-making decision to have a child out of wedlock, when the media played a vulgar guessing game about the identity of the father and when a magazine published Masaba's birth certificate naming cricketer Vivian Richards as the father.

Perhaps someday a man of similar strength who can appreciate her unusual good looks, keen intelligence and quiet determination will show up at her door. "My janam patri predicts grahasth sukh next year," she says smiling. "Maybe I'll get married." But why does she need it? Because, as Hanif Kureishi writes in his latest novel Intimacy, "Marriage is beautiful. A terrible journey, a season in hell and a reason for living." And Neena Gupta understands that.

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