“I was taught to call a spade a spade. With me, what you see is what you get,” says Ameesha Patel. Her honesty isn’t just limited to work. She shares, “I have never hidden a relationship, break-up, or make-up, whether with my family, friends, or romantic involvements. Such has been my upbringing.”

The actress shares it was her grandmother who instilled in her the sense of owning up to her true self. “She would say, The path might be tougher for honest people, but it’s a surer path. It’s a longer route to success because you don’t play dirty games with people to get your way, but you sleep well at night’,” she says.

The ‘Gadar 2’ actress, who has seen her share of highs and lows in her career, says that irrespective of the films she landed or lost out on, she didn’t align with any camp or banner. She says, “I don’t backbite, speak ill, or gossip about colleagues from the industry. I don’t belong to camps, so someone sucking up to them gets what I would be offered. I don’t idle gossiping and backbiting because that’s not why I am here. Some camps thrive on it, but I can’t. I can’t put someone down to bring myself up.”

“In an industry that thrives on relationship-building, people don’t always appreciate my kind of honesty,” she confides, adding, “If I am asked for my opinion about a film after its screening, I will tell you the truth, and that can be dangerous. People see me as muhphatt. They know, isko jo bolna hai, ye bolke hi jaayegi. I don’t know how to sugar-coat things and that can sometimes create misunderstandings.”

Ameesha says, “I would never pull someone down to rise. If, in the bargain, I lose out on some work, then so be it. I prefer to sit in a corner and read a book on the set rather than gossip and spread toxicity. I think it is important to have a social and political outlook in life, otherwise, you will get sucked up in small coups of the industry, which is unhealthy. I think this practice and belief is what has kept me grounded and real.”

Talking about her camaraderie with Sunny Deol, the Tara Singh to her Sakina, she says, “Sunny and I are very similar in some ways. He, too, doesn’t belong to any camp. He is honest, and that honesty shows. I think that’s the beauty of ‘Gadar 2’, that there is an innocence in Tara and Sakina. That vulnerability is what the audience relates to.”