Neena Gupta returns as Manju Devi in the third season of Amazon Prime Video’s Panchayat. The actress, reprising her role as the Pradhan of Phulera village, has garnered acclaim for her authentic portrayal. At 64, and actively promoting the series, Gupta has confessed that despite her friendships with many senior actors in the industry, she experiences jealousy when someone else lands a role she auditioned for or was considered for.
In a recent interview with India Today, she shared a story about a young filmmaker who had offered her a role. She subsequently discovered that the same filmmaker had contacted actor Sunita Rajwar, who is a close friend of hers. “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.
She also mentioned that she frequently feels a twinge of jealousy when she loses out on 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.
Interestingly, Sunita portrays Kranti Devi in Panchayat. The actor recently represented her film, Santosh, in the Un Certain Regard section at the 77th Cannes Film Festival. Sunita, who has been in the industry for two decades, has appeared in films such as Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon, Ek Chalis Ki Last Local, Kedarnath, Stree, Bala, and Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan. Her television work includes shows like Jab Love Hua, Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai, Ramayan, Hitler Didi, and Santoshi Maa.
In an exclusive conversation with Showsha, Neena Gupta reminisced about a time when she would accept roles that were not 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 shared.
Panchayat 3 features a stellar cast including Jitendra Kumar, Raghubir Yadav, Neena Gupta, Sanvikaa, Chandan Roy, Faisal Malik, Durgesh Kumar, Sunita Rajwar, and Pankaj Jha.
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