Shamita Shetty, upon being reunited with films, spoke with The Pioneer’s Shikha Duggal about her feature film The Tenant, her filmi background, Bigg Boss, and a lot more.
Shamita Shetty has been grabbing all the limelight ever since the news of her feature film The Tenant came out! Fans are overjoyed to learn that their childhood fav will be returning with her social saga soon. Well, The Pioneer exclusively interacted with the actress, who is on cloud nine to be back with the feature film. In the interview, she opened up about a lot of things, from her professional to her personal comments, but the one thing that got our attention was her “commitment”. Yes, she was extremely ill, and into the bargain, she still spoke to us.
No, she’s not making any “comebacks” — Mohabbatein fame is just reuniting with films. The actress said, “My director didn’t restrict me from improvising on the sets; that’s my takeaway from this film. He understands lighting, editing, pacing, screenwriting, and the camera — not just how to direct me. That’s the kind of director I would love to work with, even in the future.”
Never indulging in idle gossip, all the industry members call her a thorough professional actress. Her upcoming film was actually shot five years ago and went on to garner tremendous international accolades. She shared a sneak peek: “This film was actually made for an international film festival. It’s a masterful cinema, and we wanted the West to be privy to it too. Not every film of ours is just a masala potboiler; look beyond it! And, still being very honest, yes, we have acquired very few screens in the theatre because we are aware that the cine-goers still go for hollow entertainment, but their perception has changed way too much.”
Talking about the concept, she commented, “I am not rooting for awareness because aren’t the masses already educated? What needs to be terminated is “patriarchy”. What’s going on in our country when a bachelor looks out for a flat for himself or herself? And bringing a religious sentiment into it is even more ridiculous these days! I know of “successful” women too, in a city like Mumbai, who struggle to find an apartment to rent for themselves. They are not labelled as single but “unmarried”. You see the stereotype?”
She admitted that having a filmy background never came easy for her — “It got even more difficult for me. Every day there are comparisons; I am “expected” to live to a certain level of fame because my sister is super successful. Luck plays a very important role in this industry! When I was away from the screens, it was getting frustrating for me to not be able to express my creativity. Finally, I have moved on from these silly collations. My strength is totally different from Shilpa’s.”
Her film is calling out all the judgmental people around the country — the landlords are cold to single women! Renting a place should not be looked at from a cultural perspective. Highly educated landlords are also stuck with old belief systems that go onto malign individuals, which Shamita Shetty is calling out. She continued, “For example, live-in relationships are very prevalent in our industry. There are too many positives, for sure! I have never been in such a relationship, but I am aware that there are fewer complications. You can always keep it fresh and happy. Do what you like, society is going to judge anyway.”
What are the other roles she would like to tap into, going by the contemporary genres? She replied, “Antagonists are leading from the front these days. But as I mentioned before, it’s a bit saddening for me that I didn’t get way too many options to choose from.
Hopefully, after the release of this film, I will. I’m not even opposed to going to the South Market; there are so many brilliant stories there that we end up imitating Tollywood. So, I won’t restrict myself to Hindi cinema, but I am open to trying my hands with Telugu films now also.”
Last year was equally tough for Shamita too. Her brother-in-law was arrested, and her comment section started to condemn her unnecessarily. That took a toll on her, and that’s when her mother and sister suggested, “Go and get locked up inside the Bigg Boss house.
I had nothing to do with the controversy! People were so prejudiced towards me. I saw the country’s biggest reality television show as an opportunity to show how I am different from my other family members of mine belonging to the same industry.
I was okay with entering for the second time! Last year, the media was just so occupied with writing sensational headlines about me that very few in the fraternity actually knew my personality. My experience of life is completely different from what Shilpa had to go through, you just can’t put us side by side. But, my internal feeling was to stay back for my elder sister, she was shattered. Shilpa showered virtue on me and told me “no”.
Throughout my stint, I was feeling guilty that my sister was suffering outside, but she showed she is a lone warrior who can never be plundered for some “masala”.”
