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Neena Gupta says progressive woman characters are tagged ‘vamps, negative’; opens up on her Panchayat 3 role
Neena Gupta in a recent interview opened up about the plight of progressive woman characters in showbiz and said that they are tagged as vamps and negative by society.
Veteran star Neena Gupta needs no introduction. In an industry that assumes actresses don’t have a career post-middle-age, it is women like Neena who have redefined the narrative and existence of women in cinema. She has now opened up about how progressive women characters are perceived on-screen.
Neena Gupta shares her two cents about bold characters in showbiz
While speaking to PTI, Neena Gupta shared that despite the reality of so many women actually being progressive in real life, their portrayals are often received differently. She shared, "You can’t, they become vamps. Like, in my television show, Khandaan, I played the role of a progressive woman, and it became like a negative character. Bold characters don't work here. In movies, we see them as sati savitri.”
Neena Gupta talks about her Panchayat character
The 64-year-old is currently reprising her iconic role of Manju Devi in the third season of TVF’s popular web show Panchayat. Currently premiering on Prime Video, Neena plays the character of village head with her husband widely known as Pradhan Ji managing all her administrative responsibilities. The show is set against the backdrop of a fictional village known as Phulera in Madhya Pradesh.
Asked about the show’s massive popularity, Neena said that characters are often inspired by real life and there are still many women like her Manju Devi everywhere around us. The Vadh actress said, “She is very satisfied with her household things; she has no ambition. Pradhan is working on her behalf, people liked it and that’s how women in India do it in rural or urban places. So, women relate to me, to Manju devi.”
More about Panchayat 3
The comedy-drama also features Jitendra Kumar, Raghubir Yadav, Faisal Malik, Chandan Roy, and Sanvikaa in key roles with the first season premiering in April 2020 and its second season airing in May 2022. In the same interview, Neena revealed that even though she has been playing Manju Devi for two seasons, it still takes her a lot of preparation every time she steps into playing it.
The Unchai actress shared, “The dialect is different so when you play the character after a while, it takes time to get into the character. In fact, on the last day of the shoot, the dialogue came easily to me. I insist that we must shoot the next season soon. However, you’ve to work on the character.”
She revealed that there were people who knew the dialect like Raghubir or Faisal to help her with it every time. Directed by Deepak Kumar Mishra and created by The Viral Fever, Panchayat 3 started streaming on May 28th.
Neena Gupta’s expectations from Lok Sabha Elections 2024
Parallel to the political plot of Panchayat, Neena in the same interview spoke about her expectations from the ongoing general elections in India. She shared, “All I want is whoever comes in power, they should have a good motive. I’m worried about employment; the youth should get employment or else they might do wrong things.”
Neena said that if everyone gets employed then the problem of our country will be sorted. “Sometimes, I think it is difficult to run a house, so running a country is a difficult thing,” Neena signed off.
On the work front, Gupta was last seen in Kaagaz 2 and will be soon seen in the Hotstar web series 1000 Babies.
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