Neha Dhupia sat down with The Quint to talk about her journey as an actor, winning Miss India, the trials and joys of motherhood, and more.
Speaking of her time as a model, Neha Dhupia says, “When I started acting or modeling, there was no preparation or social media. Not that it’s easier for people who are doing it now because there’s so much of it so it’s the other side. But when we were doing it, we were clueless. We were that generation that thought, ‘We’ll reach Mumbai and figure our lives out’.”
She adds,
“I came to Mumbai and took part in Miss India. You have to give it your body, mind, soul, and preparation, all of that to actually get down to winning. Everyone on that stage is smart, beautiful, intelligent, and they want the same thing and they want it as bad as you.”Neha Dhupia
Dhupia recalls, “I was working on a lot of things when I found out I was pregnant and I went back and told the people I was working with. There were 1-2 of them who said, ‘We’ll have to ask you to step down’, and it’s tough.”
The actor then talks about how she came to play a pregnant cop in A Thursday and how her contractions kicked in on the last day of dubbing.
She also talks about her initiative ‘Freedom to Feed’, how she and husband Angad Bedi manage their schedules as actors and parents, and her conversation with Bipasha Basu wherein the latter opened up about her daughter’s VSD (ventricular septal defect) diagnosis.
“I feel like Bipasha’s conversation was one of bravery and strength. It not only empowered us as listeners. Imagine the parents whose lives have changed after hearing that. It happened to her and she took the brave step of going ahead, having faith, and doing the surgery and she came out of the other side happier and stronger."Neha Dhupia
"She, Karan (Singh Grover), and their beautiful daughter Devi have given so much strength to people," the actor says. She adds that Basu further talked about how people would question why she hadn’t gotten back to work after motherhood, and urges people to never judge others because everyone's journey is different.
Watch the video for more.
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