Actress Priya Ahuja, popularly known as ‘Rita Reporter’, from Taarak Mehta ka Ooltah Chashmah, in an exclusive chat with The Pioneer, opens about her motherhood journey so far, maintaining a proper balance between her professional and personal life, and also refutes the news of her not being a part of the show.
Tejal Sinha
You might not really recognise her when we say, “Our guest for the day is Priya Ahuja or Priya Ahuja Rajda.” But as soon as we say ‘Rita Reporter’, we’re sure you can hear this strong, bold, and a cutie for sure, saying “Main hoon Rita Reporter Kal Tak se” from one of the most loved shows, Taarak Mehta ka Ooltah Chashmah.
Having risen to fame with the hit show, the talented actress became a household name after she portrayed the role of a journalist. Acting for her was always something that she’d always wanted to do, ever since she remembers. In fact, having been inspired by the legendary actor Rekha, she said, “I think when I was in my second or third grade, when the teacher once asked me what we wanted to become, I always said “I wanted to become an actor.” I always looked up to Rekha ji.”
Lately, there have been talks stating that the actress has left Taarak Mehta ka Ooltah Chashmah, the reason being her husband Malav, who was also the director of the show. Refuting this, she confuted, “Noo! I haven’t left Taarak. I don’t know why people think that because Malav has left the show, I have left the show too. Malav as a human being is completely different, and his professional choices are completely different.I was already a part of the show from the first episode, and Malav joined in the 98th or 100th episode.
We met in the show, we fell in love, we got married, and a lot of people think that I got the show because I am Malav’s wife. It’s because of the show that we got to know each other, and then of course we got married, and Malav decided to move on to explore something else. He wants to become a producer now, and he wants to do his own film, so he chose that, but I’m still a part of Taarak Mehta, and yes, it’s been a while that I haven’t shot for the show, and when I spoke to the team, they said currently there’s no track of mine, but I’m very much a part of the show.”
We’re sure when we say that she’s one of the hottest mamas in the industry, you all will agree too. Her social media proves how she’s acing her motherhood phase and setting major goals. While motherhood is a beautiful phase in a woman’s life, it’s equally a challenging one too.
“As far as motherhood is concerned, it’s been extremely challenging and tricky. However good you are at it, you still feel that you aren’t that great and could do better overall for your child. A lot of times you get that guilt, but overall my journey has been very, very beautiful, and a big thanks to Malav, who has been the biggest supporter in this journey.”
There’s always this notion that once you have a baby, especially for an actor, the career comes to a halt. To this, the actress couldn’t agree more as she said, “Yes, it of course happens at times. You know, when you become a mother, your life changes a lot, and your priorities suddenly start changing in your life. But we have a lot of women working these days, even in our industry, who are great examples of women who are working after the baby also. Everything is determined by a person’s personal choices and priorities in life.There are wonderful women who can balance work and their babies simultaneously and do it beautifully. It depends on women to women how much they want to balance their priorities.”
Priya has always been a career-oriented artist, and “I agree that it’s been a while that I’m not working.” She’s in fact given equal priority to both her professional and personal lives. However, “I won’t say it has nothing to do with Ardaas but not much to do with him because he’s a wonderful child and all kids are wonderful, so you know they balance it out.
As mothers, we need to balance it out. I think I got this major break because of the pandemic because when that happened I wasn’t sure if I would pick up work over Ardaas because it was all new for all of us, being a mother, and all of us being new to the virus, we were not aware of how this will react to a baby, how it is going to affect my child if I go out and work. Otherwise, I would have been working, when I was pregnant I thought I would start working after 3-4 months.”
No doubt, mothers have their own struggles, and we don’t know or understand them unless we become one. And according to the thespian, “The biggest struggle for women in their motherhood phase is their own emotions; we fight our own emotions the most, like I said, the mom-guilt. I think that’s your biggest enemy. However good you are, at times deep down you keep thinking that you’re not a great mother. Am I doing enough for my child?
A lot of times when I go to some motherhood events as a celebrity, when I talk about my upbringing and people are like, “Oh my god, you’re doing so much, of course you feel great about it”, but at the end of the day at times you feel you’re not doing enough, so that is like one big challenge I have faced myself, and of course raising a child and balancing your work, raising a good human being is most important for me.”
Oh, you’re a mother now; how are you so active on social media? How are you wearing such clothes as a mother? How can you post such bold pictures? This is not something new for Priya. Recently, when she posted a few bold pictures of hers, she was mocked tremendously by people who passed on such comments on her post. Opening up on how she deals with such comments, just like a warrior, she said, “I genuinely don’t care what people think about what I can wear, what I can’t, what pictures I can post and what I can’t, what I can wear, what I can’t, anything and everything I do, and I just don’t give too much importance to people who are sitting behind screens and they are just there to comment on you or on anybody else.
Harr cheez harr kisiko pasand nahi aati(Not everyone will like everything), and it’s perfectly alright. I am not there to justify myself to anybody or even my situation, clarify anything, or think what this person will like or what people will say.”
She further revealed, “I come from a kind of orthodox family, and leaving everything behind, I came all alone to Mumbai to become an actor. Agar parvaah karti toh Mumbai mai nahi rehti, actor nahi hoti (If I really cared, I wouldn’t be here in Mumbai, nor be an actor), so I’ve never cared about those things, and I’ve never cared about people and the trolling that happens. I usually avoid replying to people who comment on anything that they say;
in fact, I just delete those bad comments. I love peace in my personal and professional life. I’m a very peaceful person (she laughs). I don’t like any kind of drama in my life, so I just avoid such things and ignore them.”
