It was a big challenge for me to show Kali's pain in the film 'Safed'

Meera Chopra, who entered the acting world in 2005 with the Tamil film "Anbe Aaruyire", has acted in more than two dozen films in South India with many veteran actors including Pawan Kalyan. Meera Chopra made her debut in Hindi films in 2016 with Vikram Bhatt's film "1920 London". After that, she also appeared in the Hindi film “Section 375” in 2019 and her acting was highly praised. Although Meera Chopra is the cousin sister of actress Priyanka Chopra, she never asked for work in films on this basis. He has made a special place for himself based on his acting talent, dedication, and hard work. These days, Meera Chopra is in the news for the thought-provoking Hindi film “Safed” directed by Sandeep Singh, which is being streamed on the OTT platform “Zee5” from December 29.

Here are excerpts from the conversation with Meera Chopra for 'Mayapuri'...

How do you look back at your 18 years of acting career?

-My path has not been easy. My acting career never took off. There have been many ups and downs in my career. Still, I have done many good films in South India and my films have also been successful. When she came to Bollywood, the beginning was very good. I did the film “1920 London” under the direction of Vikram Bhatt, which was a women-oriented film, and my acting was also praised. But I realized that making a career in Bollywood is very difficult. But I did not give up. Because I have faith in my acting talent. I wanted to do a special kind of work in Bollywood. But films like that are rarely made. That's why there were less opportunities for me. But I was happy that I would get an opportunity to do good work, even if less, which would give me spiritual happiness. My happiness matters a lot to me. For this reason, I also did the film “Section 375”. I enjoyed it a lot while doing this film. My acting was appreciated in this film also. I am doing only that work in Bollywood, which makes me happy. But it is also true that till now I have not got satisfaction from my career. But I am trying to be a part of some such films in the future, which will give me career satisfaction.

You said that you wanted to do some different kind of work in Bollywood, which you did not get. So what kind of work do you want to do or what kind of films do you want to do?

-I have done twenty-five to thirty films in South India. But I did not find the character that I had in mind. Heroines have very little role to play in South films. I have done all the very big-budget commercial films in the South. In which a heroine's role is limited to a limited extent and not more than that. I was busy in Southern cinema, but what I was doing was not giving me much happiness. I also got fame there, but this fame was incomplete. Because the heart was instigating me to do something different. One day I realized that I was not made for commercial cinema. I want to do some meaningful cinema. I want to do such a cinema, after doing which I feel proud of myself. I believe that cinema is a great soft power. We artists and filmmakers have been given a responsibility and we have the right to say something which will be heard by millions of people. You tell me how many people are there who have such an opportunity to say something and the whole world listens to it. We artists have got this. This is the main reason why my mind was motivating me to do such cinema, through which I can give something to the audience. Let us give such a message so that we can all become better people.

Don't you think that cinema has changed much in recent times? How do you see this change?

-I think there is a change in cinema every three to four years. This change does not last long. For example, during Covid, OTT platforms emerged rapidly and very dark cinema started being made. Real and dark cinema was being made, but there was no happy space for people in it. Now that time has come when big-budget masala films are earning money at the box office. These films are far from reality, but watching these films makes people happy. These are all larger-than-life films. Be it 'Jawan' or 'Pathan' or 'RRR'. These films are a bit far from reality. So the cycle continues in cinema. Who are we to judge the cinema of any era as right or wrong? The kind of cinema that the audience likes, that kind of cinema continues to be made. At present, the era of big-budget masala films is going on. In this period, director Sandeep Singh has brought something different with the film “Safed”. We hope from this film that such films will be successful, due to which the filmmakers will be excited to make some meaningful cinema. I think today's young generation is ready to watch meaningful and meaningful cinema.

Have you learned Tamil and Telugu languages?

-I have already said that I have now stopped doing Tamil and Telugu films. Now I am completely doing Bollywood cinema. The reason for staying away from southern cinema was also that I could not learn the languages there. When an artist speaks a dialogue without learning the language and understanding the true meaning of the words, it is very painful.

When Sandeep Singh offered you to do the film “Safed”, what inspired you to do this film?

-White is a very different kind of story. This is a love story of a widow and a eunuch. Their world is very different. Leave aside seeing their world, we don't even think about them. We ignore eunuchs even after seeing them. So in this film, we have created a world that is the dark reality of our society. That world exists. There is no mention of any imaginary world in the film. The reality is that we all have neglected eunuchs in society so much that we do not consider them as human beings. Whereas he is also a human being. So this film is the love story of a widow and a eunuch. This is a very different kind of cinema. When Sandeep Ji sent the script to me, after reading it my heart said that this is what I wanted to do.

What is ‘Safed’ according to you?

-For me, the film 'Safed' is a way of life. There is a hope to live life. White to me is equality among humanity. We have no right to tell anyone how to live, what to eat, or what to wear. Do they have the right to live or not? Whether they have the right to form a family or not...but we do such things in society. We have not given respect to transgender in society. We did not allow widows to fall in love or marry again. I am talking about rural women. The film 'Safed' tells us that we should allow widows and eunuchs to live the life of their choice.

Tell us about your character in the film ‘Safed’.

-In the film, I play the character of 29-year-old Kali, who becomes a widow just a month after her marriage. Then she is left in a widow's home. This is the biggest bitter truth of our society. Earlier, Jauhar and Sati were evil practices, but they have stopped. But the evil practice of widowhood still exists. Injustice is being done to widows. She is blamed for her husband's death and is termed as a bad omen. This should be stopped. After all, we live in modern India. I have played the character of such a widow. It was challenging for me to play the character of Kali because I did not know this kind of girl in my personal life. To date, I have not come across such people. When we go to small cities or towns, then we come to know about it. It was not easy to depict the pain of Widow Kali in the best possible manner. I have tried, and I hope that I have done justice to Kali with my efforts. But even today I do not understand how those girls are living their lives by accepting this truth.

Have you met such widow girls?

-We were shooting in the real widow's home in Varanasi. In the film, except for me and Chhaya Ma'am, all the real characters are there. We learned a lot from him by staying with him, which also helped me in playing the character.

The importance of love is talked about in the film ‘Safed’. What is the definition of love for you?

-For me love means trust. Understanding each other and making each other feel safe. Because nowadays relationships have become very shallow. If you can trust each other in a relationship, can understand each other, and can make each other feel safe, then that is love these days. Nowadays it is very difficult to get the same.

So what can we assume that you have found your love? Because there are talks that you are getting married in February?

- Yes, I got it exactly as I wanted.

What are your hobbies?

-I have many hobbies. Like I love watching movies very much. I love watching good content. I am very fond of shopping, I do a lot of shopping. I am fond of reading books. I enjoy reading autobiographies. I like to read stories of successful people. He writes about himself. I have been living alone for 20 years. That's why I also like being with my family very much. When I have no work, I go back to my parents and brother in Delhi. I spend time with them.

You just said that you are fond of reading books. You have read a lot of autobiographies. Have you read any book or any character that you wish to play?

- I have read the autobiography of Dilip Kumar. I was very inspired by him. His life journey is very motivational. He has come from nowhere and has done so much. He earned so much love and so much fame. Earned everything. There are very few such people. So when we read the answers of such people, we feel that nothing is impossible. We can achieve everything. And we get motivated after reading such stories.

Is there any character in your mind that you want to play?

-I want to play the character of a psycho girl.

What's going to come after 'Safed'?

-After 'Safed' my film 'Super Woman' is going to come. In which I am playing the character of a sensual girl. We still don't know much about sexuality. But it is very popular all over the world. This is also a part of LGBT. So this will be my second LGBT film. It is a very interesting story. The next film is about to come. There are two more films, on which it would not be appropriate to talk right now.

- Shantiswarup Tripathi

Tags : meera-chopra | tamil-film | pawan-kalyan

 

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