A month after her online appeal for work, actress Neena Gupta has bagged a pivotal role alongside Taapsee Pannu and Rishi Kapoor in Anubhav Sinha’s social-thriller
Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; September 13, 2017)

A month after she proclaimed on Instagram that she’s looking for work, preferably “good parts to play”, Neena Gupta has bagged a role in Anubhav Sinha’s next. The social-thriller, Mulk, will see the actress play Rishi Kapoor’s wife. It also has Taapsee Pannu in the lead role.

“It’s about a crisis during which the family sticks together to fight it. I loved the script,” says the veteran actress, who was last seen in the Bipasha Basu-Karan Singh Grover 2015 horror film, Alone. She starts shooting for Sinha’s film next month in Lucknow and Varanasi.

Her post had sparked a dialogue on actresses of a certain vintage and the dearth of roles for them. Neena reveals she had put it up because people assumed that she doesn’t work anymore and had shifted base to Delhi, where her husband, Vivek Mehra, whom she married in 2008, is based. “I have been living in Mumbai and go to Delhi whenever required. It was also because I was refusing certain offers from TV that I didn’t like. Every time I asked someone why they didn’t take me on, they were surprised to know that I’m still up for work,” she explains.

The actress further reveals that friends would tell her that they didn’t think of her while casting for roles. “It’s because I’m shy and have done a variety of roles. Whenever someone thinks of casting, they come up with names that have played similar characters before,” she says.

Of all the feedback to her online appeal for work, Neena was most touched by her daughter, fashion designer Masaba’s reaction, who refers to her as ‘Neena ji’. “I was scared she would be angry about it but she wrote such a nice post, I teared up when I read it. People stop me at airports and on the road, saying, ‘You are so brave. I wish I could do that’,” she admits.

Neena has got a lot of offers now but is reluctant to talk about them. “I have said ‘yes’ to a few TV projects but I am not sure about the pilot, the required approvals and slots. It’s a long process. I have agreed to do two films too, but can’t speak about them as I am yet to sign them. Pata chala koi aur cheen le mera role,” she jokes, reiterating that she just wants to act as she is “hungry and thirsty for it.”