Meenakshi does not mind playing hrithik’s mother

Today happens to be, believe it or not, the 57th birthday of Meenakshi Seshadri who made her debut exactly 37 years ago with Subhash Ghai’s film Hero opposite Jackie Shroff. To wish her a happy 57th birthday, on behalf of bollyy.com and Mayapuri, we reproduce this earlier article by JYOTHI VENKATESH who had written this piece twenty years ago after he met her by chance at the Chennai airport.

It was a chance encounter that I had with Meenakshi Seshadri at the Kamaraj Airport in Chennai, a few days ago when I was returning from Chennai to Mumbai after covering the location shoot of Priyadarshan’s Yeh Tera Ghar Yeh Mera Ghar. She was waiting for her flight to Bangalore along with her cute and smart three year old daughter Kendra, who is studying in a nursery in the States and what’s more, is not only very friendly even to strangers but also speaks impeccable English.

It is now six years since Meenakshi had quit films but age is yet to catch up with her obtrusively. Dressed in a simple salwar kameez, Meenakshi looked like she has put on a little weight and gracefully also a couple of strands of grey hair which in fact lent a touch of majesty and dignity to her.

At the outset, Meenakshi said that her marriage to Harish Mysore is intact and called all those vicious rumors that emanated sometime back that she and Harish had split as bunkum. “Touchwood. It has been six years since Harish and I became husband and wife. We both have a terrific understanding and give each other a lot of space as creative individuals. He is busy with his job as a busy banker and I am busy teaching dance to Indian girls in the USA besides looking after Kendra who has taken after my husband.”

Meenakshi said that the reason the media presumed that her marriage was on the rocks only because it felt that in general a long distance marriage does not work. “What added fuel to fire was the fact that I make it a point to come down to India in November every year and spend my time till March. I stay for some time with my old parents who are now staying in Chennai and my brother who is in Bangalore.”

Meenakshi rarely comes to Mumbai because not only has her parents sold off their spacious flat in Bandra a long time ago, but the fact also remains that her sister Nirmala also has shifted bag and baggage to Pune. Recently she had come down to Mumbai to perform at the Screen Awards function. “I still continue to perform my dance recitals whenever and wherever I can because dancing is something with which I have been passionately involved ever since I was just a tiny tot .”, she exclaims. In fact Meenakshi is busy teaching dance to Indian girls in the United States whenever she gets time to spare in her hectic schedule looking after both her husband Harish as well as her daughter Kendra.

Within two weeks of the release of a latest film in India, it reaches the States and Meenakshi makes it a point to catch up with what is happening in Bollywood by watching the films though she does not have even a single film on the floors. The only film of hers which is yet to see the light of the day is Tadap in which she had been teamed opposite Chunky Pandey which remains in the cans. Meenakshi had made her debut with Manoj Kumar’s Painter Babu way back in 1981 though it was Subhash Ghai’s Hero in which she was cast opposite Jackie Shroff which really made her a top ranking star to reckon with.

Meenakshi is glad that like her, her erstwhile colleague Madhuri also has proved that a long distance remote control marriage can definitely work, with her marriage to surgeon Dr Sriram Nene, who is also based in the United States, like her.

Meenakshi said that she catches up with Amitabh Bachchan in Kaun Banega Crorepati and Govinda in Jeeto Chappar Phaad Ke “Both of them are doing a wonderful job as anchors for the game shows even though they had never anchored for television all their lives. They are doing a damn good job and proved that it does not matter whether the medium is big or small as long as you deliver quality work.”

Though constraints of time would not permit her to take up acting on television though a lot of offers are pouring in even today, Meenakshi is not averse to trying her luck in films in character roles.

Does she have any qualms playing the mother like say Rati Agnihotri has started doing now in films like Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi? I ask her gingerly. Meenakshi quips as a matter of fact, “Tell me why should I have any hesitation to play the mother? I know for a fact that unlike in Hollywood, you do not get a chance to prove yourself as an actress in meaty roles if you cross 30. And let’s face facts, if Rati or I had got married when we were just 17 or 18, today we’d have been having grown up kids like Hrithik Roshan or for that matter Abhishek Bachchan. Isn’t it?

In conclusion, Meenakshi proclaims grandeously. “I don’t mind playing Hrithik Roshan’s mother in any film of his. In any case Hrithik is a rage today and I’d be only too happy to act in a film with him provided I am needed only when I am in India between November and March. However I wonder whether the audience will accept me as Hrithik’s mother since our noses may not match at all.”

Meenakshi may have quit films but then she has retained her fantastic sense of humour still intact and marriage has not mellowed her may be because her husband Harish Mysore is not an MCP who stifles her growth and stunts her potential as a creative person.

Though Meenakshi lives in the United States today, she confesses that she is not at all net savvy unlike her husband who knows the A,B,C of computers since he is into computer banking. Believe it or not, Meenakshi does not even have her own e-mail id. “I give my husband’s e-mail id whenever organizers of dance recitals approach me and ask me for my e-mail address.” she signs off.