'I Took a Break From Acting Because I Was Bored Out of My Skull:' Sushmita Sen

Sushmita Sen is gearing up for the release of Taali, wherein she plays transgender activist Gauri Sawant. The series will start streaming on JioCinema from 15 August. The Quint caught up with Sushmita to speak about the show, taking a break from acting, recovering from a heart attack and more.

When asked about how she views inclusivity and representation in the Hindi film industry Sushmita replied,

"Given that the LGBTQ+ community has had to fight so hard for the littlest of things, it's a habit to wonder 'why not us when it comes to casting?', even though they know that this movie is going to benefit them. I don't think that they are wrong, but I am not just doing a film on the trans community. I am starring in a series inspired by the life of Gauri Sawant, and she chose me... I believe that today if a female actor has been given the opportunity to play a trans characters, tomorrow we can pave the way for transpeople to play binary characters."

Sushmita also spoke about her decision to take a break from acting and how OTT has led to a huge evolution in the roles being written for female actors. "Because I am a 90s actor, our careers were done by the time we were around 28. And now you have author-backed Aarya, who is not a teenager in college. It's written with a character of that age. Even Taali. I am older than Gauri, and it doesn't matter. There's no possibility now of saying, 'women-centric roles don't work.' That conversation had become tormentingly bad at one point because you don't have any creativity left. You are only looking at territories and wondering where you will sell for how much."

She added, "Thank God for OTT platforms, because it gave us a new lease of life. It brought back a lot of the actors and brought up new potential. And I am glad I took that hiatus because what you consider a screen age is the number of films you are constantly doing in an attempt to stay in the game. When you step away from the game it is a risk, but it keeps the freshness and screen age alive."

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Editor: Arnab Chakravorty.