WHY MADHOO QUIT ACTING SO ABRUPTLY

‘A feeling of dissatisfaction had set in. I believed the flood of offers coming my way didn’t do justice to my talent.’

One still remembers her running with the wind and singing with the birds, Dil hai chhota sa, chhoti si asha, but Madhoo is not a carefree Roja today. She is a mother of two, making a comeback to acting.

And like she did three decades ago, she is bending the rules again.

Just 54, she is playing not a mother but a grandmother in ZEE5’s fantasy series,Fireflies: Parth or Jugnu.

Madhoo’s nani is a revelation, nothing like the stereotype we have been seeing on screen for years.

Madhoo reveals, “Doing a role that was blatantly sexual would be far more difficult than playing a nani because then, I would have to break the barriers of conditioning.”

At an age when actresses are still wary of playing mother, you are seen as a grandmother in Fireflies: Parth or Jugnu. That’s a brave call.

I don’t know if it’s brave because even in my Hindi debut film Phool Aur Kaante, I played a wife and a mother.

In Pehchaan, I was a girl from a red light area.

And mind you, this was in the ‘90s, when heroines didn’t experiment with their roles and image.

For me, being an actor is not different from being a doctor, engineer or even a plumber. It’s just by default that we get a lot of love and attention.

When I’m told I’m brave or down-to-earth, that I’m unlike a star, I often wonder what makes me different since I don’t think I’m doing anything extra special.

You are breaking stereotypes, Madhoo. Your nani is not greying and past her prime, but young and beautiful. She’s going to glamorise grandmothers on screen.

I’m so happy to hear you say that.